Dozens of air safety investigators are set to arrive in Kentucky on Wednesday to piece together evidence on how a UPS cargo plane crashed and erupted into a huge fireball, killing at least seven people and injuring a further 11.
At least 28 National Transportation Safety Board agents will start searching for clues about the possible cause of the disaster, which saw the UPS plane crash shortly after takeoff at the Louisville Muhammad Ali international airport, leaving behind a fiery trail of destruction on the ground and a huge plume of black smoke.
The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, had three crew members onboard and crashed at about 5.15pm local time on Tuesday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It was bound for Honolulu.
Related: At least seven dead and 11 injured after UPS plane crashes near a Kentucky airport
So far, seven fatalities and 11 injuries have been reported, although Andy Beshear, Kentucky’s governor, has said he expects this death toll to rise. The UofL Health hospital system said that it is treating 10 patients in relation to the crash, with two of them in critical condition at the hospital’s burn center.
Four of those killed were not onboard the plane, said Brian O’Neill, the Louisville fire department chief.
Hundreds of firefighters have fanned out to deal with fires that erupted on the ground after the crash, although local leaders have asked the public to not move any debris and instead report it to help investigators piece together the reason for the deadly incident.
“We have put together a form where residents can report debris in your yard,” Craig Greenberg, the mayor of Louisville, posted on X. “We ask that residents do not touch or move any debris on your own.”
Investigators will work to find out how a seemingly routine flight – the UPS hub at Louisville has 300 flights a day – went so badly wrong. Officials have said that there were no hazardous materials on the plane.
Videos taken by onlookers showed flames on the plane’s left wing, with the aircraft then lifting off the ground before crashing and exploding into a huge fireball. Nearby residents reported hearing loud booms and witnessed flames in the sky and on the ground.
The amount of fuel on the plane would make a large explosion almost inevitable, Pablo Rojas, an aviation attorney, told the Associated Press. “There’s very little to contain the flames and really the plane itself is almost acting like a bomb because of the amount of fuel,” he said.
The videos of the plane appear to show that the engine had detached from it before its final impact, spewing out parts, Mary Schiavo, a former Department of Transportation inspector general, told CNN.
“They expel from that engine, and the centrifugal force from the engines, the blades spinning, and they can cut through the plane and cut fuel lines,” Schiavo said of the parts. “That engine clearly came off of that plane before the final impact. The poor pilots could do nothing at that point.”
Multiple flights were canceled or delayed at the airport following the crash. A shelter-in-place order surrounding the airport has now been reduced to a quarter-mile radius around the crash site.
