Louisville mayor: Death toll from UPS plane crash has climbed to 12

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The death toll from Tuesday’s UPS plane crash has climbed to 12 including one child, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told TV station WHAS on Wednesday night.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said it’s likely the child was with a family member visiting Grade A Auto Parts, one of two nearby businesses destroyed by fire sparked by the crash.

“We are really hurting for those families,” Beshear said.

Beshear said the operation has moved from a rescue to a recovery operation.

The victims have not been publicly identified.

At around 5:20 p.m. on Tuesday, UPS Flight 2976, with three crew members on board, was departing Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport bound for Honolulu when “an accident” occurred, according to UPS.

After being cleared for takeoff, a large fire ignited on the left wing during the takeoff roll, according to Todd Inman, a board member with the National Transportation Safety Board. The plane lifted off the ground and cleared the fence at the end of runway 17R before colliding with structures and terrain off airport property.

The left engine detached during the takeoff roll, and was found lying in the airfield. Inman said he thinks investigators will get some useful information from the engine.

U of L Health received 15 injured patients from plane crash, and two are still being treated at a hospital, said Heather Fountaine, manager of media relations at U of L Health. The two patients are in critical condition in the ICU at U of L Hospital, and the other 13 have been released from a hospital.

Dr. Jason Smith, CEO and chief medical officer of U of L Health, said the patients suffered from burns, explosion and shrapnel injuries and conditions that were exacerbated from the air quality.

“The latest information I’m getting is those families may not line up with the hospital patients, which means we’ve got to continue to search that site,” Beshear said. “Hope and pray for the best, but know there may be more loss of life that we’re going to learn about today.”

Flight data recorders, known as black boxes, have been recovered from the crash scene. Inman said it will take several days before they can get a reading from them.

Beshear said the crash impacted two businesses in the area: Kentucky Petroleum Recycling Plant and Grade A Auto Parts.

Kyler Collins, who said he works at Grade A, was home Tuesday when the plane crashed.

He said three of his fellow employees, including Jonny Houck, are still missing.

“Jon is a very special type of guy, he’d give you his shirt off his back. He’s always there for you when no one else is. Unfortunately, he is missing after the plane crash,” Collins said.

Collins said the other two of his co-workers who are missing are women whose full names he did not know.

It’s not immediately known what caused the plane to crash or where the deaths occurred. Victims had not been publicly identified as of Wednesday evening.

The crash site covers almost a half-mile, according to Inman.

“Thankfully, a local restaurant that is right there, that we had great concern would be impacted, and we’d lose whoever was in it, was missed and now is helping the search and rescue,” Beshear said. “We’re grateful for them.”

The Okolona Fire Department was the first fire department to respond to the scene. Chief Mark Little said his firefighters, from the small area in southern Louisville, had just completed emergency training about two weeks prior to the crash.

“You hope that you never have to do this, but unfortunately it happened,” Little said.

U of L Health officials also underwent mass disaster training about six weeks ago, Smith said.

“We were able to work through our own internal processes,” Smith said. “Luckily, we didn’t have to activate all of those based on the number of people that came in last night, but it’s an example of what we do.”

There were dozens of fire apparatus at the scene Tuesday night, including assistance from other fire departments. As of Wednesday afternoon, the on-scene presence has down scaled to four fire trucks, two ambulances, about 30 to 40 firefighters and a search and rescue team, Little said.

Little said he expects his crews to be on scene for at least a week. Inman also said he expects the NTSB investigative team to be in Louisville for about one week.

“We’ll be out there as long as the NTSB needs us to be there,” Little said. “We are prepared for this.”

Little described the debris field caused by the crash as very large. He said there isn’t much left of the plane’s fuselage.

“With the intense fire that was there, most of things are gone, including some of the vehicles, the semis and the plane,” Little said.

Beshear declared a state of emergency to open up more resources for groups assisting with the crash.

“It’s going to help to make sure that groups that are already limited in terms of their funding can get some immediate or short term help as they wait for reimbursement for the costs that they expended,” Beshear said.

The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, was inspected by the airport’s operations team within an hour of departure, according to Dan Mann, CEO of the Louisville Regional Airport Authority. The inspection team did not find any issues with the plane.

Inman said he’s spoken with UPS executives, and they indicated there was not any maintenance work done to the aircraft immediately before takeoff.

“That is information that we will still collaborate and independently verify, but at least by first glance, we did not see that happening,” Inman said.

The airport shut down in the wake of the crash but reopened Wednesday. The airport said runway 11/29 is open, but multiple taxiways still remain closed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Twenty-one flights were canceled Tuesday at the Louisville airport, and 16 more flights have been canceled Wednesday. Mann expects many delays and a few more cancellations Wednesday until another runway can reopen.

The NTSB, an independent national agency that investigates transportation crashes, will investigate the crash. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg and U.S. Rep Morgan McGarvey met NTSB members as they arrived in Louisville around 10:30 a.m.

Chihoon Shin is the lead investigator in the case. Inman said Shin has been with the agency for 13 years and is one of the more senior investigators with the agency.

Investigators will analyze the facts, determine the probable cause of the crash and issue a report of recommendations to prevent a similar incident from happening again, Inman said.

There is still a shelter-in-place warning for areas within a quarter-mile from the crash site. Greenberg said officials monitored the air quality overnight and will continue to do so indefinitely.

UPS canceled package sorting operations at its Worldport facility Wednesday, the shipping company announced. Hub and Ramp employees are encouraged to not report for work.

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