Eleven people died after a UPS aircraft crashed at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Nov. 4.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.—A young child and ten others died when a UPS cargo plane crashed at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Nov 4, according to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
The child was shopping with a parent at one of the businesses that was heavily impacted by the devastating crash.
“This [child] was probably … part of a family that was here with a parent,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear stated during a press conference on Nov. 5.
Beshear suggested the death toll may rise to 12 as authorities switch from a search and rescue mission to a recovery mission.
The cargo plane hit two small businesses, including Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and Grade A Auto Parts. It miraculously missed Stooges Bar & Grill, a family-owned restaurant in town, the Epoch Times confirmed.
The identities of the victims have not yet been released.
UPS Communications confirmed that a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, manufactured in 1991, had three crew members onboard when it crashed.
Beshear said the coroner was on site today removing bodies, and indicated that the condition of the scene “may make it difficult to identify” some of the victims.
Beshear, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, and U.S. Congressman Morgan McGarvey toured the crash site Wednesday afternoon after greeting members of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the morning.
“It’s like the scene of a Terminator movie,” McGarvey said. “It is burned and mangled wreckage beyond anything I’ve ever seen. The smells. The sights. These are things that are not going to escape us when we close our eyes tonight.”
Greenberg said, “What we just saw at the crash site is devastating beyond words.
“The impact and the intensity of the wreckage, the charred wreckage, is unlike anything I’ve seen before and certainly nothing that I ever want to see again.”
Jefferson County Public Schools will reopen on Thursday, after a shelter-in-place order canceled classes on Wednesday.
Todd Inman, a member of the NTSB, confirmed that the aircraft’s black boxes have been recovered and a team of 28 people will be in Louisville for nearly a week investigating the cause.
The NTSB stated that the flight had not been delayed and the aircraft had not undergone maintenance work before takeoff.
A preliminary crash report is expected to be released in one month.
By Jacki Thrapp
