Federal investigators in the United States have found the "black boxes" from the wreckage of a UPS cargo plane that crashed into flames after taking off from Louisville, Kentucky, killing at least 12 people, officials said, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, also confirmed that a large "fire cloud" exploded around the plane's left wing and that one of its three engines separated from the wing as the wide-body jet was taxiing down the runway.
The 34-year-old MD-11 cargo plane was flying to Honolulu with three crew members on board when it crashed shortly after overshooting the runway fence during takeoff Tuesday evening, striking a number of structures just outside the airport, Inman said.
The plane was immediately engulfed in a cloud of fire that ignited a number of fires and scattered debris about 800 meters away, setting fire to an oil recycling facility that exploded.
Inman, in the first NSTB briefing since the crash, said the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were designed to withstand the impact of a crash and the intense heat from fires and appeared intact when they were discovered Wednesday amid the wreckage of the crash.