Investigators are reviewing 63 hours of data collected from the black box of a UPS cargo plane involved in a deadly crash that killed at least 12 people in Louisville, Kentucky earlier this week.
Nine people remain missing as authorities sift through the wreckage of Tuesday’s crash in an attempt to piece together what went wrong.
The doomed aircraft was last reported at 475 feet of altitude, traveling at a speed of 183 knots at around 5:13 p.m., officials said on Thursday.
The plane had been in San Antonio for about six weeks before Tuesday’s flight and officials said they are looking into maintenance records from its time in Texas.
They are also reviewing CCTV information from the field surrounding the crash. Investigators have already pulled multiple pieces of engine fan blades along with the main component of the engine strewn across the debris field.
Data collected from the plane’s black box contains information from 24 flights, including the one that went down on Tuesday, officials said. It also contains about 2 hours of voice audio from the cockpit.
National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said investigators are working to create a timeline of events combining data reported by the FAA and the plane’s black boxes, such as altitude, air speed, engine information and the status of all systems installed on the aircraft.
“We consider this a good extraction with good data points, which means that we will have even more information to help paint a comprehensive picture,” he told reporters.
The number of people unaccounted has gone down from 15 on Wednesday to nine, according to Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg.
Inman said dozens of people were still waiting to hear news about their loved ones who died or remain missing.
“Our first and foremost priority is recovery of those who are still missing,” he said. “This investigation is not impeding that in any way.”
On Wednesday, Kentucky officials said that the three crew members on board were among the dead, and that a young child was thought to have been killed in the explosion.
The mayor cautioned that more bodies may be recovered in the coming days as authorities sift through the huge debris field left behind from the horrific crash.
“There’s so much charred, mangled metal, that not all the bodies may have been located until you look underneath certain things,” he said. “And so that is going through the various layers of debris on the field that will begin now — everything to date has been just looking at what can be seen without moving debris.”
The crash occurred Tuesday after the left engine of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 plane caught fire during takeoff and immediately detached, according to officials. UPS Flight 2976 was heading for Honolulu.
Video of the crash posted on social media appears to show the plane on fire just before it crashed into a series of buildings south of Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, destroying the surrounding area. The plane had around 38,000 gallons of fuel on board, according to officials. Satellite images show the debris field extending more than a half-mile.
“You hear people say, ‘Oh, you only see that in the movies.’ This was worse than the movies,” Greenberg said. “Half a mile long, standing there where you could just see the destruction, the charred mangled metal, some cases at that point, there were still some smoke rising piles of debris.”
Sean Garber, who owns Grade A Auto Parts and Scrap Metal Recycling, said four of his company’s 18 buildings were destroyed by the blast. The crash also affected Kentucky Petroleum Recycling, which declined to comment.
“There was a huge ball of fire and massive multiple explosions occurring all around and obviously people running and screaming,” Garber told NBC News.
Garber said that approximately two dozen people were in the buildings at the time.
The NTSB is looking at the maintenance history of the plane, with help from FBI forensic investigators. The FBI’s involvement is standard procedure and does not suggest that authorities suspect terrorism.
The crash occurred in the middle of the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history. Amid the shutdown, federal employees, including air traffic controllers, are not being paid for their work, exacerbating existing staffing shortages.
In an appearance on Fox News on Thursday morning, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shot down concerns that the crash was related to the government shutdown.
“This was not an air traffic controller issue. I want to be clear on that,” he said. “This appeared more mechanical. But we do have the flight and data recorders, those are in the process of being analyzed and will tell us what was happening on that aircraft.”
UPS CEO Carol Tomé said in a message to employees that “our hearts continue to be with all who have been impacted.”
UPS is the largest employer in Louisville, with more than 25,000 of its employees based in the metropolitan area. The company calls the Louisville International Airport “the centerpiece of the company’s global air network,” with roughly 400 of its flights arriving and departing each day, according to its website.
The last UPS crash occurred in 2013, when a cargo plane crashed near Birmingham, Alabama, killing two pilots.
Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport remains open, with two of its runways in operation, Greenberg said.
The mayor added that a vigil for the victims will take place in Louisville on Thursday evening.
