The left engine came off a doomed United Parcel Service Inc
. freighter moments before it crashed in a fireball near the company’s global hub in Kentucky, killing at least 12 people.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a post on X that the death toll had reached a dozen and said several people were still unaccounted for.
Earlier, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the accident site was “moving from a rescue to a recovery mode. We do not expect to find anyone else alive in the area,” he told reporters.
The fuel-laden, Honolulu-bound McDonnell Douglas MD-11 climbed high enough to clear a fence at the end of the runway at Louisville Muhammad
Ali International Airport, but then the aircraft plunged into te
rrain and buildings outside of the facility’s perimeter, National Transportation Safety Board official Todd Inman said at a separate briefing Wednesday.
Inman said the engine seen in photographs laying on the airfield is likely the left-side engine, which would correlate
with a separate video the NTSB has watched showing the powerplan
t detaching from the plane. The resulting crash left behind a sprawling field of debris, fires and smoke.
The NTSB has located cockpit voice and flight data recorders from the aircraft, Inman added. The bright-orange devices, commonly referred to as a jet’s black b
ox, provide crucial information as to the final moments of the flight and pilot operations.
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The crash comes at a time of widespread air travel disruptions across America caused by air traffic contro
ller shortages since the US government shutdown began Oct. 1. Transportation S
ecretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that US air capacity will be cut by 10% at 40 high-volume locations starting Friday to alleviate strain on the aviation system.
Tuesday’s incident adds to a deadly year for global aviation. Just three weeks ago, a cargo plane skidded o
rnational Airport, killing two ground crew. In June, 241 people died on an Air India flight that crashed just after takeoff, and in January a US Army helicopter collided
with an American Airlines Group Inc. regional jet on approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport near Washington.
UPS noted the incident in a securities filing released Tuesday,
saying it does not believe the event will materially impact the company’s financial position, results of operations or cash flow.
On Wednesday, UPS canceled second-day air service package-so
rting operations at the facility — its largest hub known as Worldport — after halting the work right after the crash.
“Our heartfelt thoughts are with everyone involved,” the parcel-delivery company said in a statement Tues
day, adding that it was assisting in the investigation. In a statement released late Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer Carol Tome said the company is committed to safety. UPS hasn’t confirmed whether its staff are among