Moment plane erupts in fireball at Kentucky airport, killing at least seven people and sparking huge blaze

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.

Television channel WLKY, a CBS affiliate, showed video of the crash and a fireball erupting as it hit the ground.

Several buildings in an industrial area beyond the runway were on fire after the crash, with a thick plume of black smoke rising into the sky.

The Federal Aviation Administration said: "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."

An engine appeared to have separated from the plane before the crash, a person briefed on the matter said in reference to images of airfield debris.

The cause and origin of the fire before the aircraft went down are unknown.

US air safety expert and pilot John Cox said investigators will need to look at why the plane with three engines failed to fly after one apparently caught fire.

“It’s too big a fire for a normal, typical-engine fire,” Cox said. “It’s much too big.”

“That airplane should have flown on two engines. So now we’ve got to look at what caused it not to fly,” he added.

Fires on the ground burned for hours afterwards, with authorities warning the public within a 5-mile radius of the scene to stay indoors to guard against air-quality hazards. The shelter-in-place zone was later reduced to a mile across.

FAA records show the crashed plane, an MD-11 freighter, was 34 years old. Boeing, which shut down the MD-11 program after acquiring it in a merger with McDonnell Douglas, said it was concerned for the safety and well-being of those affected, and it would provide technical support to the investigation.

Flightradar24 said the plane, which began operations with UPS in 2006, had flown from Louisville to Baltimore earlier on Tuesday before returning to Louisville.

It climbed to an altitude of 175 feet and reached a speed of 184 knots before making a sharp descent, Flightradar24 data showed.

The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the accident investigation and was sending a team to the site, a spokesperson said.

The NTSB typically takes 12 to 24 months to complete an investigation, make a finding of probable cause and issue recommendations to help avoid similar incidents.

UPS is the largest employer in Louisville, providing 26,000 jobs, the publication Louisville Business First said.

"We are terribly saddened by the accident tonight in Louisville," the company said in a statement.

Louisville's Worldport is at the center of the hub-and-spoke system for its air cargo network, serving the high-tech, healthcare and retail industries, handling more than 300 flights and processing about 2 million packages a day.

"My heart goes out to everybody at UPS, because this is a UPS town," Louisville Metro Council member Betsy Ruhe, whose district includes the airport, said at the press conference.

"We all know somebody who works at UPS, and they're all texting their friends, their family, trying to make sure everyone is safe. Sadly, some of those texts are probably going to go unanswered."