12 dead after engine fell off UPS plane that crashed and exploded in Kentucky

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A UPS cargo plane’s left wing caught fire and an engine fell off just before it crashed and exploded after takeoff in Kentucky, a federal official said Wednesday, offering the first investigative details about a disaster that killed at least 12 people, including a child.

First responders, meanwhile, searched for more victims, a day after the crash at UPS Worldport, the company’s global aviation hub in Louisville, though Gov. Andy Beshear said finding survivors seemed unlikely. The inferno consumed the enormous aircraft and spread to nearby businesses.

After being cleared for takeoff, a large fire developed 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 Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Inman told reporters.

Airport security video “shows the left engine detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll,” he said.

The cockpit voice recorder and data recorder were recovered, and the engine was discovered on the airfield, Inman said.

“There are a lot of different parts of this airplane in a lot of different places,” he said, describing a debris field that stretched for half a mile.

A chain reaction

The plane with three people aboard crashed about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday as it was departing for Honolulu from UPS Worldport at the Louisville airport.

The crash had a ripple effect, striking and causing smaller explosions at Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and hitting an auto salvage yard, Grade A Auto Parts. Beshear said the child who died was with a parent at the parts business.

Beshear earlier said it was a “blessing” that the plane did not hit a nearby Ford Motor factory or the convention center.

U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., praised firefighters who rushed headfirst to the disaster scene, describing it as “hotter than hell and raining down oil.”

Some people who heard the boom, saw the smoke and smelled burning fuel were still stunned a day later.

“I didn’t know if we were getting attacked. I didn’t know what was going on,” said Summer Dickerson, who works nearby.

The number of victims is unclear

Beshear predicted that the death toll would rise, saying authorities were looking for a “handful of other people” but “we do not expect to find anyone else alive.”

Mark Little, chief of the Okolona Fire District in Louisville, said debris would have to be moved and searched, adding: “It will take us quite a while.”

University of Louisville Hospital said two people were in critical condition in the burn unit. Eighteen people were treated and discharged at that hospital or other health care centers.

The airport is 7 miles (11 kilometres) from downtown Louisville, close to the Indiana state line, residential areas, a water park and museums. The airport resumed operations on Wednesday, with at least one runway open.

Beshear said he did not know the status of the three UPS crew members aboard the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 made in 1991. It was not clear if they were being counted among the dead.

`We all know somebody who works at UPS’

UPS said it was “terribly saddened.” The Louisville package handling facility is the company’s largest. The hub employs more than 20,000 people in the region, handles 300 flights daily and sorts more than 400,000 packages an hour.

“We all know somebody who works at UPS,” Louisville Metro Council member Betsy Ruhe said.

The governor said The Team Kentucky Emergency Relief Fund, typically used to help people in natural disasters, is accepting donations to help with funeral expenses and other hardships.

“In Kentucky, we grieve together and we support one another,” Beshear said.

Desperate to find loved ones

Eric Richardson stood outside a police training academy, where people gathered waiting for word of their missing loved ones Tuesday night. He said his girlfriend, who had been at a metal recycling business near the explosion, wasn’t answering her phone. Her phone’s live location said she was still there.

“We don’t even want to think about anything but the best,” a friend, Bobby Whelan, said. “All our friends were there.”

Stooges Bar and Grill bartender Kyla Kenady said lights suddenly flickered as she took a beer to a customer on the patio.

“I saw a plane in the sky coming down over top of our volleyball courts in flames,” she said. “In that moment, I panicked. I turned around, ran through the bar screaming, telling everyone that a plane was crashing.”

Manager Lynn Cason said explosions, only about 100 yards (90 meters) away, shook the building three times -- “like somebody was bombing us” -- but no one there was injured.

“God was definitely with us,” Cason said.

What happened to the plane?

Flight records show the plane was on the ground in San Antonio from Sept. 3 to Oct. 18.

Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, said a number of things could have caused the fire as the UPS plane was rolling down the runway.

“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. It’s just too soon to tell,” said Guzzetti who investigated crashes for the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration.

He said the crash bears a lot of similarities to one in 1979 when the left engine fell off an American Airlines jet as it was departing Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, killing 273 people.

Guzzetti said this UPS plane and the American plane were equipped with the same General Electric engines. The 1979 crash involved a DC-10, but the MD-11 UPS plane is based on the DC-10.

By Bruce Schreiner, Hallie Golden And Dylan Lovan.

Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press reporters Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; John Raby in Cross Lanes, West Virginia; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Jonathan Mattise and Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.