(Reuters) -UPS said on Tuesday one of its wide-body cargo planes with three crew members on board crashed in Louisville, Kentucky, and local police said injuries had been reported.
“UPS Flight 2976 crashed around 5:15 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Nov. 4, after departing from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The plane was en route to Honolulu, it said.
Television channel WLKY showed video footage of the crash as it occurred, with a huge fireball erupting as the plane hit the ground.
A government source briefed on the matter said video appeared to show the plane on fire as it went down the runway before exploding in a fireball.
UPS said it had yet to confirm any injuries or casualties due to the accident on one of its MD-11 planes.
The Louisville airport is home to UPS Worldport, a global hub for the delivery firm’s air cargo operations and its largest package handling facility in the world.
The crash will likely disrupt deliveries for UPS, and its major customers including Amazon and the United States Postal Service.
As night fell, live aerial footage over the scene broadcast by WLKY, a local CBS affiliate, showed the red-orange glow of flames from fires ignited on the ground by the crash spread over nearly a mile.
The Louisville airport said the airfield was closed after the incident, while the Louisville Metro Police Department said it was responding to reports of a plane crash and that injuries had been reported.
“Kentucky, we are aware of a reported plane crash near Louisville International Airport. First responders are onsite, and we will share more information as available. Please pray for the pilots, crew and everyone affected. We will share more soon,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on X.
According to FAA records, the MD-11 freighter involved in the crash was 34 years old. Boeing, which owns the MD-11 program, declined to comment.
FlightRadar24 said the plane, which began operations with UPS in 2006, had flown from Louisville to Baltimore earlier on Tuesday before returning to Louisville. The flight from Louisville to Honolulu typically takes 8-1/2 hours, the flight tracking service said.
(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru, David Shepardson in Washington, Dan Catchpole in Seattle, Chris Thomas and Juby Babu in Mexico City and Steve Gorman and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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