A UPS cargo plane went down Tuesday evening shortly after taking off from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, killing at least nine and injuring 11 others.
The crash ignited a massive fireball that tore across a wide area, destroying nearby businesses and leaving a trail of chaos.
Several businesses were directly hit, including a petroleum recycling center, whose tanks of oil and gas fueled a fire so large it covered nearly an entire city block.
Rescue teams scrambled to search the debris, locating nine victims while 16 people remain missing.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said;
“I’m now fairly confident that that number will grow by at least one,”
“We hope it doesn’t grow by too many more.”
Okolona Fire Chief Mark Little detailed the difficulty of the operation:
“I don’t know how many victims we’re actually looking for. That’s one of the issues and the debris zone is so large.”
Fifteen patients have been treated at local hospitals, and crews continue to search under wreckage.
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