Two days after a UPS cargo plane crashed in Kentucky, the Louisville Courier Journal now reports the confirmed death toll has risen to 12, with nine people still unaccounted for. Sadly, emergency crews reportedly no longer believe it's likely that any of those currently missing will be found alive and are now focused on finding and recovering their bodies. Due to the size of the fire, it will likely take some time, though, since emergency crews have so much rubble to search through.
As Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told reporters, "There's so much debris there. There's so much charred, mangled metal that not all the bodies may have been located until you look underneath certain things, so that is going through the various layers of debris on the field. That will begin now."
So far, emergency crews have been able to keep the fires from reigniting, although they're still worried about flare-ups. Air quality has also reportedly returned to normal, although a shelter-in-place warning still remains in effect for those living within a quarter-mile of the crash site. While there is some risk of additional fires breaking out again, the crash also left plenty of exposed wires that could still pose a danger to those in the area.
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Louisville's WDRB also reports that the National Transportation Safety Board has recovered the downed plane's "black box" and has sent it to its lab in Washington for analysis. While we won't know what they find immediately, expect an initial report in a couple of days. However, the NTSB has already said it doesn't plan to release the audio recording out of respect for the families of the crash victims.
The NTSB also plans to look into the 34-year-old plane's maintenance history, although UPS claims the flight wasn't delayed, and it didn't perform any maintenance immediately before takeoff. However, initial reports suggest the plane was grounded from September until mid-October, and some maintenance work was likely done during that time.
WDRB reports Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear also declared a state of emergency at a press conference Wednesday morning, which should allow the state to move more quickly to help those who were affected by the crash. Beshear has also reactivated the Team Kentucky Emergency Relief Fund to provide financial support for the families of the victims.
"You hear people say, 'You only see that in the movies,'" Greenberg told reporters. "This was worse than the movies. Half a mile long, standing there, where you can just see the destruction."
