**Louisville UPS Plane Crash: Investigation Continues as Recovery Efforts Reach Third Day**
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The grim task of finding victims from the firestorm that followed the crash of a UPS cargo plane in Louisville, Kentucky, entered a third day Thursday as investigators continue to gather information to determine why the aircraft caught fire and lost an engine on takeoff.
The plane, which had three people aboard, had been cleared for takeoff Tuesday when a large fire developed in its left wing, said Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the agency leading the investigation. However, determining exactly why the fire started and the engine fell off could take investigators more than a year.
According to Inman, the plane gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of the runway before crashing just outside Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. Both the cockpit voice recorder and the data recorder have been recovered, and the engine was discovered on the airfield.
The crash and subsequent explosion caused a devastating ripple effect, igniting smaller fires at Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and damaging an auto salvage yard. Tragically, a child who was at the salvage yard with a parent was among those killed, Governor Andy Beshear confirmed.
Some witnesses remained stunned a day later after hearing the boom, seeing the smoke, and smelling burning fuel. Kyla Kenady, a bartender at Stooges Bar and Grill nearby, recalled the moment vividly.
“The lights suddenly flickered as I took a beer to a customer on the patio,” Kenady said. “I saw a plane in the sky coming down over top of our volleyball courts in flames. In that moment, I panicked. I turned around, ran through the bar screaming, telling everyone that a plane was crashing.”
Governor Beshear predicted the death toll could rise, stating that authorities were searching for a “handful of other people,” but “we do not expect to find anyone else alive.”
The University of Louisville Hospital reported that two people remain in critical condition in the burn unit. Additionally, eighteen people were treated and discharged from that hospital or other healthcare centers.
Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, located seven miles (11 kilometers) from downtown Louisville and near the Indiana state line, residential areas, a water park, and museums, resumed operations on Wednesday with at least one runway open.
The status of the three UPS crew members aboard the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, manufactured in 1991, remains unclear, according to Governor Beshear. It was not confirmed if they were counted among the deceased.
UPS released a statement expressing that the company was “terribly saddened” by the accident. The Louisville package handling facility is UPS’s largest hub, employing more than 20,000 people in the region. The hub handles 300 flights daily and sorts more than 400,000 packages each hour.
Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, explained several possible causes for the fire during takeoff.
“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,” Guzzetti said.
This crash bears notable similarities to a 1979 incident when the left engine fell off an American Airlines jet departing Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, killing 273 people. Guzzetti pointed out that both jets—the DC-10 involved in the 1979 crash and the MD-11 UPS plane—were equipped with the same General Electric engines, and both underwent heavy maintenance in the month preceding their crashes.
The NTSB attributed the 1979 Chicago crash to improper maintenance.
Flight records indicate that the UPS plane was on the ground in San Antonio from September 3 to October 18, but it remains unclear what maintenance was performed during this period and whether it contributed to the Louisville crash.
Investigators continue their work to uncover the full story behind this tragic accident as the community mourns the loss and recovers.
https://abc7.com/post/ups-plane-crash-officials-scour-charred-site-kentucky-victims-answers/18120174/
