By David Shepardson
(Reuters) -The death toll from the crash of a UPS cargo plane that erupted into a fireball moments after takeoff in Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday has risen to nine, city and state officials said Wednesday.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will be on site Wednesday to begin the process of finding out what went wrong when the 34-year-old MD-11 cargo plane caught fire around 5:13 p.m. ET Tuesday and then crashed.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said nine dead people had been found at the scene of the crash. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on social media it was possible there would be more fatalities. Officials said 11 victims had been taken to hospitals on Tuesday.
The international airport in Louisville reopened to air traffic early on Wednesday, though the runway where the accident happened is expected to remain closed for another 10 days, officials said.
UPS said Tuesday it had halted package sorting operations at its facility at the airport. The company did not say if it had resumed package sorting Wednesday.
The triple-engine plane was fueled for an 8-1/2 hour flight to Honolulu. It had a crew of three, UPS said. None survived, officials said.
It was the first UPS cargo plane to crash since August 2013, when an Airbus aircraft went down on a landing approach to the international airport in Birmingham, Alabama, killing both crew.
Several buildings in an industrial area beyond the runway were on fire after the crash, with thick, black smoke seen rising into the evening sky.
One key question for investigators is why one engine appeared to have separated from the plane before the crash, a person briefed on the matter said, pointing to video images of airfield debris.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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