LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Two days after a deadly UPS plane disaster, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, urged the public to attend a vigil Thursday to "share our heartbreak,” while teams still worked to find or identify victims from the crash and subsequent firestorm.
“Our hope is that we have located all of the victims at this point. But again, we do not know,” Mayor Craig Greenberg said.
The inferno destroyed the enormous plane and spread to nearby businesses, killing at least 12 people, including a child and three UPS crew on the cargo hauler. No one expects to find survivors in the crash at UPS Worldport, the company’s global aviation hub.
The plane had been cleared for takeoff Tuesday when a large fire developed in the left wing and an engine fell off, said Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation.
Meanwhile, UPS Worldport operations resumed Wednesday night with its Next Day Air, or night sort, operation, spokesperson Jim Mayer said.
“Our goal is to begin returning the network to a normal cadence," Mayer said.
Greenberg described the crash site as “horrific,” with “charred, mangled metal.” Part of the plane's tail, he said, appeared to be sticking out of a storage silo.
“You hear people say, ‘Oh, you only see that in the movies.’ This was worse than the movies,” Greenberg told reporters.
Teamsters Local 89, which represents UPS workers, scheduled a late afternoon public vigil. The mayor encouraged the public to attend, calling it an opportunity to “share our heartbreak” and "find strength to keep moving forward.”
Remains being identified
The plane had gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of the runway before crashing just outside Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Inman said. The cockpit voice recorder and data recorder have been recovered, and the engine was discovered on the airfield, he said.
Greenberg said the remains of 12 people have been found, and investigators believe that number includes the three who were on the UPS plane. The coroner’s office, he added, is working to confirm identities and determine whether the others are nine people who remain unaccounted for based on reports from families.
The UPS package handling facility in Louisville 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 have received an outpouring of support from around the world — we deeply appreciate every prayer and word of encouragement,” UPS said.
The crash and explosion caused even more blasts and destruction at businesses in an industrial corridor just outside the airport. University of Louisville Hospital said Wednesday that two people were in critical condition in the burn unit. Others were treated and released.
Flames, panic and more questions
Sabit Aliyev, the owner of Kentucky Truck Parts and Service, still doesn't know if his business is standing. He said he was inside the shop Tuesday when the burning plane passed by, followed by an explosion. He went outside and recorded what sounded like another explosion.
“It was like hell,” Aliyev said. “There was fire all over. It was sky high.”
He and his workers fled over vacant land but were suddenly trapped by a high security fence until a police officer used bolt cutters to cut open a gate.
“I still have life, but 12 people — not anymore,” he said.
Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, said a number of things could have caused the fire as the plane, a 1991 McDonnell Douglas MD-11, 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,” Guzzetti said.
The crash bears 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, he said.
Guzzetti said that jet and the UPS 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; the MD-11 UPS plane is based on the DC-10.
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.
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Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.