UPS cargo plane crashes in flames on takeoff in Louisville, killing at least nine; NTSB finds black boxes amid wreckage.
FEDERAL safety investigators have located the “black boxes” from the wreckage of a UPS cargo plane that crashed in flames on takeoff from the airport at Louisville, Kentucky, killing at least nine people, officials said on Wednesday.
Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, also confirmed that a large “plume of fire” erupted around the plane’s left wing and that one of the plane’s three engines detached from the left wing as the aircraft was rolling down the runway.
The wide-body cargo jet, an MD-11-F built in 1991 by Boeing , was bound for Honolulu with three crew members aboard when it crashed moments after clearing the runway on takeoff on Tuesday evening, striking a number of structures just beyond airport property, Inman said.
The plane was immediately engulfed in a fireball that ignited a string of blazes and left a debris field stretching about a half a mile through an industrial corridor, including a petroleum recycling facility that was set ablaze.
The crash also disrupted Louisville-based operations at the UPS Worldport facility, the company’s global cargo hub for its air shipments, slowing delivery services.
Inman, in the first NTSB briefing since the disaster, said the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were built to withstand crash impacts and intense heat from fires and that they appeared to be intact when located on Wednesday amid the crash debris.
Earlier on Wednesday, Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency in Kentucky aimed at hastening the flow of disaster response resources to the scene of the crash.
As of Wednesday, at least six people were confirmed to have been killed on the ground and nearly a dozen others injured, in addition to three members of the plane’s crew also perished, authorities said.
Beshear told reporters he expects the death toll could grow by at least one more as emergency personnel and recovery crews pick through the crash zone.
About 200 firefighters and emergency personnel and 50 trucks were called on Tuesday to battle the blaze which filled the evening sky with thick, black smoke. Still, Beshear said a nearby convention center, restaurant and Ford Motor Co plant escaped the blaze.
“It’s hard to lose nine plus people and consider yourself lucky,” Beshear said. “And I don’t think we’re lucky but it could have been much worse.”
Officials said 11 victims were taken to hospitals on Tuesday while a government official told Reuters at least 10 others remain unaccounted for. Beshear said two people remain in critical condition.
Investigations continue
The international airport in Louisville reopened to air traffic early on Wednesday, although the runway where the accident happened is expected to remain closed for another 10 days, officials said.
UPS said it halted package sorting operations at its airport facility on Tuesday and then canceled a parcel sorting shift on Wednesday that usually begins in the midmorning.
U.S. aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said on Wednesday he has not seen any evidence of a link between the accident and a 36-day U.S. government shutdown that has strained air traffic control.
Production of the MD-11 plane ended in 2000 and passenger service officially ended in 2014. For cargo operations, there are about 50 MD-11 planes being operated by FedEx and UPS worldwide, with about two other planes of that type still operating.
GE Aerospace, which produces the engines for the plane, said it offered its support to UPS and to the NTSB.
Brickhouse said investigators are expected to focus on the number-one engine which was seen on video to be ignited, and appeared to have separated from the aircraft.
“It is designed to fly if you lose one engine, but we need to see the effect of losing that engine on the rest of the aircraft,” Brickhouse said.
The triple-engine plane was fueled for an 8-1/2-hour flight to Honolulu.
It was the first UPS cargo plane to crash since August 2013, when an Airbus aircraft went down on a landing approach to the international airport in Birmingham, Alabama, killing both crew members.- Reuters
