NTSB Sifts Through UPS Louisville Plane Crash Wreckage

The UPS aircraft’s voice and data recorders were recovered and could provide insights into what happened before and during the crash, which killed at least 13 people.

Federal investigators have begun collecting information from the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder of the UPS cargo plane that crashed earlier this week in Louisville, Ky., the National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday.

The devices, known as black boxes, were sent to the N.T.S.B.’s offices in Washington for examination, and data was being downloaded and assessed, a board member told reporters at a news conference in Louisville on Thursday.

Investigators are continuing to examine the wreckage, which covers about a half-mile just outside the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, where the flaming UPS cargo plane crashed early Tuesday evening, killing 13 people.

It was the first full day of on-site investigation by the safety board, which is working to determine why the aircraft caught fire on the runway and dropped one of its engines just before the crash.

Remains of 12 of the victims have been found and removed from the site, Mayor Craig Greenberg of Louisville said at a separate news conference earlier in the day. Among those, three have been named, and the coroner was working to identify nine others.

One of the 15 people who were brought to University of Louisville hospitals after the crash died on Thursday, Mr. Greenberg said. One patient remained in critical condition and 13 were discharged on Wednesday, according to Jason W. Smith, the chief executive of the university hospital system.

Mr. Greenberg said that the three UPS crew members on the plane were believed to be among the dead. In a statement on Thursday, UPS named the three crew members who were aboard the flight: Captain Richard Wartenberg, First Officer Lee Truitt and Captain Dana Diamond.

The plane’s fiery return to the ground left a trail of singed trees, scorched soil and mangled items from an auto parts supplier that was among the buildings struck in the crash.

“This was worse than the movies,” said Mr. Greenberg, who visited the site on Wednesday. He said he had seen the plane’s tail fin sticking out of a storage silo whose top had been ripped away.

“The intensity of the flames, and what that did, so quickly, to a half-a-mile-long debris field — it was unimaginable, prior to seeing it with my own eyes,” Mr. Greenberg said.

The safety board officials said that a fire broke out along the plane’s left side while it was on the runway, and that its left engine detached as the aircraft rolled to take off. Pieces of the engine, including parts of fan blades, were found on the tarmac after the crash, Todd Inman, a member of the transportation safety board, said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.

Data extracted from the voice and data recorders could offer more insight into what happened during and before the crash, Mr. Inman said on Thursday, adding that the devices had yielded “a good extraction with good data points.”

The safety board’s investigation will take months. In the meantime, family members of the people who are missing have been anxiously awaiting news from officials about whether their loved ones’ remains are among those recovered from the scene.

“It’s a tough situation,” Mr. Inman said. “It’s hard. Their main issue is, where’s my loved one? Because right now, no one’s been identified.”

The cargo plane was bound for Honolulu when it crashed shortly after takeoff early Tuesday evening. It was carrying about 38,000 gallons of fuel, according to Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky. He added that the plane hit a business called Grade A Auto Parts, as well as a petroleum recycling facility. The aircraft barely missed a restaurant, a convention center and a large Ford plant.

Three of the missing are employees for Grade A Auto Parts, said Sean Garber, the company’s C.E.O. Mr. Garber said he had been spending time with families of the missing, who are “shocked, angry, heartbroken, confused and worried.”

The Louisville airport is one of the world’s busiest hubs for cargo traffic. UPS has its largest air cargo hub, called Worldport, in Louisville. The airport fully reopened on Thursday.

Over 200 community members gathered at a union hall in Louisville for a vigil on Thursday night. One of the attendees, Tina McQueen, said she worked for UPS in the 1980s and 90s, and her daughter and granddaughter currently work there.

“Everyone in Louisville knows somebody who works at UPS,” said Ms. McQueen, who was holding a sign that read, “Louisville is UPS Strong.”

Rylee Kirk contributed reporting.

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