The search for victims entered its third day Thursday after a UPS cargo plane crashed and burst into flames near Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, killing at least 12 people, including a child.
According to The Associated Press, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 caught fire and lost an engine during takeoff Tuesday before slamming into nearby businesses at UPS Worldport, the company’s global aviation hub.
The inferno destroyed the aircraft and sparked secondary explosions at surrounding sites, including Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and an auto salvage yard where the child and a parent were located, according to Gov. Andy Beshear.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said the plane’s left wing caught fire shortly after takeoff. “The plane gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of the runway before crashing just outside the airport,” said NTSB member Todd Inman.
The cockpit voice and flight data recorders have been recovered, along with the engine, which was found on the airfield. Inman cautioned that determining the cause could take more than a year.
Witnesses described the crash as sudden and terrifying.
“I saw a plane in the sky coming down over top of our volleyball courts in flames,” said Kyla Kenady, a bartender at Stooges Bar and Grill. “In that moment, I panicked. I turned around, ran through the bar screaming, telling everyone that a plane was crashing.”
Two people remain in critical condition at the University of Louisville Hospital, while 18 others were treated and released. Beshear warned that the death toll could rise, saying authorities are still searching for “a handful of other people” but “we do not expect to find anyone else alive.”
The status of the three UPS crew members aboard the 1991-built aircraft remains unknown. UPS said it was “terribly saddened” by the tragedy.
UPS Worldport employs more than 20,000 people, handles about 300 flights daily, and sorts more than 400,000 packages an hour. Airport operations resumed Wednesday.
Former federal crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti said several scenarios could explain the in-flight fire. “It could have been the engine partially coming off and ripping out fuel lines. Or it could have been a fuel leak igniting and then burning the engine off,” he said.
Guzzetti noted similarities to a 1979 American Airlines crash in Chicago that killed 273 people after an engine detached on takeoff. Both aircraft used the same type of General Electric engines and underwent heavy maintenance in the month before their crashes.
Flight records show the UPS plane was grounded in San Antonio from Sept. 3 to Oct. 18, though it remains unclear what maintenance was performed or whether it played a role in the disaster.
