The left wing of a UPS cargo plane caught fire and an engine fell just before the plane crashed and exploded after takeoff in Kentucky, a federal investigator said Wednesday, offering the first official details about a disaster that killed at least 12 people, including a child.
Meanwhile, first responders were searching for other victims, a day after the crash at UPS Worldport, the company’s global aviation hub in Louisville, although Gov. Andy Beshear said finding survivors appeared unlikely. The inferno consumed the massive plane and spread to nearby businesses.
After being cleared for takeoff, a large fire broke out in the left wing, said Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation.
The plane gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of the runway before crashing just outside Muhammad Ali International Airport, Inman told reporters.
Airport security video “shows the left engine detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll,” he said.
Recorders recovered
The cockpit voice recorder and data recorder were recovered and the engine was discovered at the airfield, Inman said.
“There are a lot of different parts of this plane in a lot of different places,” he said, describing a debris field that stretched a half-mile.
The plane with three people on board crashed around 5:15 p.m. local time on Tuesday while leaving for Honolulu.
The accident had a devastating ripple effect, striking and causing smaller explosions at Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and impacting an auto salvage yard, Grade A Auto Parts. Beshear said the child who died was with a relative who worked at an auto parts company.
Earlier Wednesday, he posted online that 16 families gathered at a reunification center “had reported their loved ones missing,” but he later announced that the death toll had risen.
The tough news continues today as Louisville’s death toll now stands at at least 11, and I expect it to be at 12 by the end of the day. Even more difficult news is that we believe one of the missing people was a young child. 1/2
More than 200 emergency responders responded to the crash Tuesday evening and the city will continue to use all available resources, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told WLKY-TV Wednesday morning.
U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey praised firefighters who rushed headfirst to the scene of the disaster, describing it as “hotter than hell and it was raining oil.”
“I don’t know how many victims we’re actually looking for,” said Mark Little, chief of Louisville’s Okolona Fire District. “That’s one of the problems, and the debris area is so large. Some of that debris is going to have to be moved and searched underneath. It’s going to take us a while.”
The University of Louisville Hospital said Wednesday that two people were in critical condition in the burn unit. Eighteen people were treated and discharged from this hospital or other health centers.
A huge fireball erupted, leaving a trail of smoke after a UPS plane with three people on board crashed at the Louisville, Kentucky airport on November 4.
Resumption of operations
UPS announced it would resume operations at its cargo hub Wednesday evening.
The hub employs thousands of workers, handles 300 flights per day and sorts more than 400,000 packages per hour.
“Our goal is to begin returning the network to normal with flights arriving Thursday morning,” said company spokesperson Jim Mayer.
The airport is about 6 miles from downtown Louisville, close to the Indiana border, residential areas, a water park and museums. The airport resumed operations on Wednesday, with at least one runway open.
Video shows balls of flame
Video taken Tuesday by Leirim Rodríguez shows several massive balls of flame exploding into the sky in a row, followed by large clouds of black smoke. Rodriguez told The Associated Press that she and her husband were in the area at the time of the explosion.
Tom Brooks Jr., who runs a metal recycling business on the street, said the accident “shook everything.”
“It was huge. I mean, it literally looked like a war zone,” he said.
Destyn Mitchell said she was working as an entertainer at an Outback restaurant, about a 15-minute drive from the crash, when she heard a “very loud boom”. About twenty people were present in the restaurant.
“The mood in the restaurant was very upset,” Mitchell said. “Everyone is really worried. People who were just sitting down to eat got up and left within 30 minutes and packed up their food because they wanted to hurry up and go home.”
The governor said the Team Kentucky Emergency Relief Fund, typically used to help people affected by natural disasters, is accepting donations to help cover funeral costs and other hardships.
“In Kentucky, we grieve together and we support each other,” Beshear said.
Pablo Rojas, an aviation lawyer, said that from videos of the crash, the plane appeared to be struggling to gain altitude as a fire broke out on its left side, around one of its engines. Given the fuel the plane was carrying, it was only a matter of time before the fire spread quickly or an explosion occurred.
“In reality, the plane itself acts almost like a bomb because of the amount of fuel,” he said.
