LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A UPS cargo plane crashed and exploded in a massive fireball Tuesday while taking off from the company’s global aviation hub in Louisville, Kentucky, killing at least four people and injuring 11 — numbers that were likely to grow, the state’s governor said.
The plane crashed about 5:15 p.m. as it was departing for Honolulu from UPS Worldport at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
“Right now we believe we have at least three fatalities, though I believe that number is going to get larger. We have at least 11 injuries, some of them very significant,” Gov. Andy Beshear said.
Video showed flames on the plane’s left wing and a trail of smoke. The plane then lifted slightly off the ground before crashing and exploding in a huge fireball. Video also revealed portions of a building’s shredded roof next to the end of the runway.
“Anybody who has seen the images, the video, knows how violent this crash is,” Beshear said.
He said he didn’t know the status of the three crew members aboard the plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 made in 1991.
UPS’s largest package handling facility is in Louisville. The hub employs thousands of workers, has 300 daily flights and sorts more than 400,000 packages an hour.
— Aviation Expert Tom Kinton details what may have led up to the crash —
“We all know somebody who works at UPS,” Louisville Metro Council member Betsy Ruhe said. “And they’re all texting their friends, their family, trying to make sure everyone is safe. Sadly, some of those texts are probably going to go unanswered. My heart goes out to those families and those friends.”
UPS acknowledged the crash in a brief statement and said the National Transportation Safety Board would handle the investigation.
The airport, meanwhile, was shut down and wasn’t expected to resume operations until Wednesday morning.
“We don’t know how long it’s going to take to render that scene safe,” said Louisville Police Chief Paul Humphrey.
The governor said a business, Kentucky Petroleum Recycling, appeared to be “hit pretty directly,” and a nearby auto parts operation was also affected.
A video taken by Leirim Rodríguez shows several massive balls of flames exploding into the sky in a row, followed by large billowing clouds of black smoke. Rodriguez told the AP she and her husband just happened to be in the area at the time of the explosion.
Tom Brooks Jr., who runs a metal recycling business down the street, said the unbelievable magnitude of the crash “just rocked the whole place.”
“This was massive. I mean, it literally looked like a war zone,” he said.
Destyn Mitchell said she was working as a host at an Outback restaurant, about a 15-minute drive from the crash, when she heard a loud boom. About 20 people were in the restaurant.
“The mood in the restaurant was very shaken up,” Mitchell said. “Everyone is really concerned. People who just sat down to eat got up and left in under 30 minutes and packed up their food because they wanted to hurry up and get home.”
A shelter-in-place order was extended to all areas north of the airport to the Ohio River. The Louisville airport is only a 10-minute drive from the city’s downtown, which sits on the river bordering the Indiana state line. There are residential areas, a water park and museums in the area.
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