**Investigators Continue Search for Victims After UPS Plane Crash in Louisville**
*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. Investigators are gathering information to determine why the aircraft caught fire and lost an engine shortly after takeoff.
The plane, carrying three people, had been cleared for takeoff Tuesday when a large fire developed in the left wing, said Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is leading the investigation. However, determining the exact cause of the fire and the engine separation could take investigators more than a year.
According to Inman, the aircraft 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 data recorder have been recovered, and the engine was found on the airfield.
The crash and subsequent explosion caused a devastating ripple effect, triggering smaller blasts at Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and striking an auto salvage yard nearby. Tragically, a child who was with a parent at the salvage yard was among those killed, according to Governor Andy Beshear.
Eyewitnesses remain stunned a day later. Kyla Kenady, bartender at Stooges Bar and Grill, described how the lights flickered as she carried 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 recalled. “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 would rise, stating authorities were searching for a “handful of other people” but that “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 individuals have been treated and discharged from this hospital and other healthcare centers.
Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport is located seven miles (11 kilometers) from downtown Louisville, near the Indiana state line, residential neighborhoods, a water park, and museums. The airport resumed limited operations on Wednesday, with at least one runway open.
The status of the three UPS crew members aboard the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, a plane manufactured in 1991, remains unknown, according to Governor Beshear. It is unclear if they are counted among the casualties. UPS expressed that it was “terribly saddened” by the incident.
The Louisville package handling facility is UPS’s largest hub, employing more than 20,000 people in the region. It handles approximately 300 flights daily and sorts more than 400,000 packages per hour.
Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, suggested several potential causes for 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,” he explained.
Guzzetti noted similarities between this crash and a 1979 incident at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where the left engine fell off an American Airlines jet during departure, resulting in 273 fatalities. Both aircraft used the same General Electric engines and had undergone heavy maintenance in the month before the accidents. The NTSB attributed the Chicago crash to improper maintenance.
Flight records indicate the UPS plane was on the ground in San Antonio from September 3 to October 18, but it remains unclear what maintenance was performed and whether it contributed to the crash.
*Copyright © Associated Press*
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