At least 12 people have died and more than a dozen are injured after a UPS cargo plane crashed while taking off from an airport in Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday evening.
Aviation experts who spoke to BBC Verify believe the plane crashed after one engine failed and another appeared to be damaged during take-off. It is unclear what caused the plane to crash, prompting a massive fireball to erupt after it failed to take off from the runway. Footage showed fire had already engulfed one wing of the aircraft while it was attempting to take off, which may have spread through the plane and caused the explosion, or the jet could have caught fire after colliding with an object on the ground.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) - which is investigating the crash - said they have recovered airport CCTV footage that shows the plane's left engine falling off from the wing during takeoff.
The agency has also recovered the cockpit flight recorder and the flight data recorder, known as the black box, from the wreckage, said the NTSB's Todd Inman. What is also apparent is that the 38,000 gallons (144,000 litres) of fuel on board the MD-11 jet needed for the flight likely escalated the blaze, which quickly spread to several buildings beyond the runway and burned for hours.
UPS uses Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport as a distribution hub for its global operations, and its Flight 2976 was starting a 4,300-mile journey to Honolulu in Hawaii when the cargo plane attempted to take off. Data from the tracking website FlightRadar24 shows the plane began to taxi along the 17R runway at around 17:15 local time (22:15 GMT) and reached a top speed of 214 mph (344 km/h). However, verified footage shows that by this time, a fire had completely engulfed its left wing, and the aircraft struggled to climb away from the runway before the explosion.
Air traffic control communications reviewed by BBC Verify are largely garbled, making it difficult to discern any meaningful conversation regarding the crash as it unfolded. Analysts suggested that a dramatic failure of two engines may have been responsible for the disaster. The MD-11 transport plane uses three engines; two are mounted under the wings, with a third in the tail.
Footage confirmed by BBC Verify showed a blaze engulfing the left wing of the plane, which then tilted to the left as it attempted to gain lift. Two experts independently suggested the left engine may have detached from the plane due to a mechanical or structural failure. The NTSB later confirmed the left engine detached from the plane's wing during takeoff. Separate images after the crash showed a charred engine on the grass next to the runway.
In the wake of this tragedy, investigators will focus on how the initial fire began and whether debris struck the center engine, as well as the maintenance history of the left engine. The NTSB has sent a team to the site and will lead the investigation into the crash's causes, which can take up to two years to complete.
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