Emergency Workers Search Scene of Deadly UPS Crash in Louisville

Emergency workers in Louisville, Ky., on Wednesday were combing the site where a UPS cargo plane plunged to the ground a day earlier, killing at least nine people and setting off a sprawling fire on the edge of the city’s main airport.

The jet, with a crew of three, erupted into flames when it crashed moments after takeoff early Tuesday evening and careened through industrial buildings on the outskirts of the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.

The initial fire sent plumes of black smoke into the twilight and touched off additional blazes at buildings on the ground.

Several families were searching for missing loved ones on Tuesday, according to the office of Mayor Craig Greenberg of Louisville, who said Wednesday morning that emergency responders had located the nine who died in the crash.

The number of victims could rise, and none have been publicly named.

Fifteen people were brought to University of Louisville hospitals, Heather Fountaine, a spokeswoman for the university’s health system, said. Thirteen of the patients had been discharged; two were still hospitalized and were in critical condition Wednesday morning, she said.

Colin Embry, who owns an auto parts shop near the airport, watched the tail of the plane as it hurtled toward the ground on Tuesday and saw the UPS logo in flames. He was close enough to feel the heat of the plane’s explosion, he said, and he was still in a daze Wednesday morning as he waited to get back to his business to see whether anything was left.

“I can’t believe we are alive,” Mr. Embry said of himself and his eight employees.

The plane was loaded with 38,000 gallons of fuel, and one of the buildings it hit on the ground was a petroleum recycling facility, Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, said on CNN on Wednesday.

“It’s hard to lose nine-plus people in such a violent way,” he said, adding that the plane barely missed a restaurant bar, a convention center and a large Ford plant. “Really tough,” he said. “But recognize it could be worse.”

Mr. Beshear said later on Wednesday that he was declaring a state of emergency to help officials respond to the disaster.

Hundreds of firefighters worked to contain the blaze. The airport had reopened a runway as of Wednesday morning, the mayor said, and the sky over the site of the crash looked sunny and clear. While officials were still assessing the water and the environment, Mr. Beshear said, the plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, had not been carrying hazardous materials.

The flight, UPS 2976, was bound for Honolulu. After taking off at 5:14 p.m., the jet climbed to just 175 feet before swiftly descending, the governor said.

The crash disrupted cargo operations for UPS, which has its largest air cargo hub, called Worldport, in Louisville.

There have been at least three crashes, two of them deadly, involving UPS planes since 2006. The most recent was in 2013, when a plane that had departed from Louisville crashed short of the runway in Birmingham, Ala., killing its two pilots.

Boeing, which bought McDonnell Douglas in the 1990s, said in a statement that it had offered technical assistance to the National Transportation Safety Board, which will investigate the crash. The board said its team was arriving in Kentucky on Wednesday.

Karoun Demirjian, Rylee Kirk, Alexandra E. Petri, Billy Witz, and John Yoon contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes and Susan C. Beachy contributed research.