On Saturday AEDT, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said on social media that the total death toll had now risen to 14, including 11 people on the ground.
The 34-year-old MD-11 cargo plane was heading for Honolulu and reportedly had more than 143,000 litres of fuel onboard when it crashed. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear told reporters it barely missed a restaurant, a convention centre and a large Ford plant.
Inman said it would be months before a transcript of the cockpit recording is made public as part of that investigation process.
UPS has announced that “out of an abundance of caution”, it will temporarily ground its remaining 26 MD-11 aircraft, which account for 9 per cent of its fleet.
“We made this decision proactively at the recommendation of the aircraft manufacturer. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our employees and the communities we serve”, a company statement said.
Investigators trawl video for clues
Dramatic video capturing the crash from phones, dashcams and CCTV has provided investigators with visual evidence of what happened from numerous angles.
The NTSB clarified on Friday that preliminary data on the aircraft’s altitude indicated it got about 30 metres above the ground, not 144 metres. It reached a speed of 340 km/h before crashing just outside the Louisville airport, Inman said.
The engine’s main component and pieces of the engine fan blades were recovered from the airfield.
Inman said UPS indicated no maintenance work was performed before the flight “that would delay it in any way”. He noted that investigators would review the video to determine what, if anything, had been done around the aircraft in the preceding days.
The UPS package handling facility in Louisville is the company’s largest. The hub employs more than 20,000 people in the region, handles 300 flights daily and sorts more than 400,000 packages an hour.
Lawsuit alleges negligence
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Litigation over the crash has already begun. A federal lawsuit was filed on Thursday against UPS by an automotive repair company that was destroyed in the crash, and a resident who was treated at a hospital after breathing in smoke.
The aircraft and engine manufacturers of the plane were also named in the lawsuit, which alleges the defendants “negligently breached their duty of reasonable care and prevented unreasonable harm”. It seeks unspecified damages.
The companies named as defendants didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment on Friday.
AP
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