{"id":265218,"date":"2025-11-06T09:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T09:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/265218\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T09:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T09:08:16","slug":"child-among-12-dead-after-ups-plane-crashes-explodes-in-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/265218\/","title":{"rendered":"Child among 12 dead after UPS plane crashes, explodes in Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"

A UPS cargo plane\u2019s left wing caught fire and an engine fell off just before\u00a0it crashed and exploded<\/a>\u00a0after 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.<\/p>\n

Finding survivors seemed unlikely as first responders searched the charred area of the crash at UPS Worldport, the company\u2019s\u00a0global aviation hub in Louisville<\/a>, Gov. Andy Beshear said. The inferno consumed the enormous aircraft and spread to nearby businesses.<\/p>\n

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 NTSB will now try to determine what caused the fire and why the engine fell off. It will likely take investigators more than a year to answer those questions.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Airport security video \u201cshows the left engine detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The cockpit voice recorder and data recorder were recovered, and the engine was discovered on the airfield, Inman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of different parts of this airplane in a lot of different places,\u201d he said, describing a debris field that stretched for half a mile.<\/p>\n

A chain reaction<\/p>\n

The plane with three people aboard crashed about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday as it was departing for Honolulu from\u00a0UPS Worldport<\/a>\u00a0at the Louisville airport.<\/p>\n

The crash had a devastating 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.<\/p>\n

Beshear earlier said it was a \u201cblessing\u201d that the plane did not hit a nearby Ford Motor factory or the convention center.<\/p>\n

Some people who heard the boom, saw the smoke and smelled burning fuel were still stunned a day later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know if we were getting attacked. I didn\u2019t know what was going on,\u201d said Summer Dickerson, who works nearby.<\/p>\n

Stooges Bar and Grill bartender Kyla Kenady said lights suddenly flickered as she took a beer to a customer on the patio.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a plane in the sky coming down over top of our volleyball courts in flames,\u201d she said. \u201cIn that moment, I panicked. I turned around, ran through the bar screaming, telling everyone that a plane was crashing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manager Lynn Cason said explosions, only about 100 yards (90 meters) away, shook the building three times \u2014 \u201clike somebody was bombing us\u201d \u2014 but no one there was injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod was definitely with us,\u201d Cason said.<\/p>\n

The number of victims is unclear<\/p>\n

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced on the social platform X on Wednesday evening that the death toll had risen to 12, saying, \u201cPlease take a moment to hug your loved ones and check on your neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor predicted that the death toll would rise, saying authorities were looking for a \u201chandful of other people\u201d but \u201cwe do not expect to find anyone else alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Little, chief of the Okolona Fire District in Louisville, said debris would have to be moved and searched, adding: \u201cIt will take us quite a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The airport is 7 miles (11 kilometers) 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

UPS said it was \u201cterribly saddened.\u201d The Louisville package handling facility is the company\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Similarities to previous crash<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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\u2019s just too soon to tell,\u201d Guzzetti said.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s O\u2019Hare International Airport, killing 273 people.<\/p>\n

Guzzetti said this UPS plane and the American plane were equipped with the same General Electric engines and both planes underwent heavy maintenance in the month before they crashed. The NTSB blamed the Chicago crash on improper maintenance. The 1979 crash involved a DC-10, but the MD-11 UPS plane is based on the DC-10.<\/p>\n

Flight records show the UPS plane was on the ground in San Antonio from Sept. 3 to Oct. 18, but it was unclear what maintenance was performed and if it had any impact on the crash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A UPS cargo plane\u2019s left wing caught fire and an engine fell off just before\u00a0it crashed and exploded\u00a0after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-265218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}