What to know about the deadly UPS plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky

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Aviation experts think federal investigators looking into the deadly UPS cargo plane crash in Kentucky will focus first on its engines and maintenance records.

The plane crashed and burst into a massive fireball just after taking off Tuesday in Louisville, Kentucky, killing at least nine people.

The crash also shut down UPS’ largest package distribution hub and disrupted some flights going in and out of the airport in Kentucky’s largest city.

Authorities were searching for additional victims in the industrial area next to the airport where the plane slammed into businesses. Several people on the ground were killed, Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill said. Close to 20 people were injured.

A team of National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived on site Wednesday.

Here’s what is known about the crash.

Aviation experts expect the engines will be looked at closely after video showed the plane’s left wing was on fire just moments before it crashed at the end of the runway.

NTSB investigators also are likely to focus initially on any recent maintenance, said John Cox, the CEO of the Florida-based aviation consulting firm Safety Operating Systems.

Flight records suggest the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, built in 1991, underwent maintenance while it was on the ground in San Antonio for more than a month until mid-October. It's not clear what kind of work was done at that time.

Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, said it’s too early to know whether the problem was in the engine, the structure that holds the engine, or something else.

“This airplane apparently did undergo heavy maintenance within the past month, and investigators will need to comb through the maintenance records to see exactly what was done,” he said.

Aviation attorney Pablo Rojas said video suggests the plane struggled to gain altitude as flames blazed along its left side.

The plane, bound for Honolulu and fully loaded with fuel, shredded the roof of one large building before erupting.

“There’s very little to contain the flames, and really the plane itself is almost acting like a bomb because of the amount of fuel,” he said.

He said it’s hard to know if the pilot saw the flames, and that even if the crew realized there was a problem, aborting the takeoff might’ve been even more dangerous.

The plane crashed in an area dotted with scrap yards and UPS facilities.

It narrowly missed a restaurant bar and went down not far from a Ford auto assembly plant where hundreds of people were working, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday.

The blaze stretched nearly a city block and destroyed much of the plane's fuselage, fire officials said.

Package sorting at UPS' mammoth handling facility in Louisville remained shut down Wednesday. How much the crash will disrupt shipping remains to be seen.

The hub — called UPS Worldport — handles 300 flights daily and sorts more than 400,000 packages an hour.

Flights at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport resumed Wednesday morning although just one runway was open initially. More than a dozen flights were canceled.