The death toll from the UPS cargo plane has risen to at least twelve, including a child, after Tuesday’s fiery crash at Louisville International Airport in Kentucky. Investigators say one of the aircraft’s engines fell off moments before the left wing caught fire.
Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), confirmed during a press briefing that the plane broke apart mid-ascent, scattering debris across nearly half a mile. “There are a lot of different parts of this airplane in a lot of different places,” he said.
The plane, carrying three crew members, was bound for Honolulu from UPS’s Worldport facility but did not make it out of the airport, as it crashed and exploded around 5:15 p.m. just after takeoff. Emergency responders quickly worked through the widespread wreckage that Tuesday evening.
A video taken near the airport shows the left wing engulfed in flames. The video also shows a trail of flames and smoke as the aircraft crashed and skidded across the ground. The aircraft managed to lift off the runway but crashed into structures just beyond the airport’s perimeter.
Authorities recovered both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder by Wednesday afternoon. Although both devices sustained some heat damage, Inman said they remain intact and are expected to provide valuable information once analysed at the NTSB’s lab in Washington, D.C.
Officials identified the aircraft as a 1991 McDonnell Douglas model later converted into an MD-11 Freighter. Since Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, the company has been assisting in the investigation. Approximately twenty-eight NTSB investigators are on site gathering evidence.
The crash sparked several smaller explosions after debris struck nearby businesses, including Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and Grade A Auto Parts. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear noted that the damage could have been far worse, given the proximity of a local restaurant, a Ford factory, and the city’s convention centre.
