Kentucky Plane Crash: Eyewitnesses Describe Chaos As UPS Plane Crashes After Takeoff In Louisville

The UPS MD-11 cargo plane crashed and exploded in a massive fireball Tuesday evening while taking off from the company's global aviation hub in Louisville, Kentucky. The aircraft was departing for Honolulu from UPS Worldport at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport when it went down around 5:15 p.m.

Governor Andy Beshear confirmed the tragedy, saying, "Right now we believe we have at least three fatalities, though I believe that number is going to get larger. We have at least 11 injuries, some of them very significant."

Eyewitness Recall The Horrific Incident

Destyn Mitchell was working as a host at an Outback restaurant about 15 minutes from the airport when she heard a "very loud boom." "The mood in the restaurant was very shaken up," Mitchell told the Associated Press. "Everyone is really concerned. People who just sat down to eat got up and left in under 30 minutes and packed up their food because they wanted to hurry up and get home."

Justin Dunn and his son witnessed debris falling from the sky after the crash. "My son was like, 'Hey, look in the sky,' and it was coming down out of the sky, and he picked it up," Dunn told CNN affiliate WAVE, holding up a piece of paper. He added, "There's definitely debris all through here, probably within 10 miles." Dunn, who has friends working at UPS, said he hasn't been able to reach them. "I just hope everyone made it out of it."

Amanda Rhye, a Louisville resident and former EMT, was at a Kroger grocery store about five miles from the airport when she saw the smoke. "My jaw dropped when I heard minutes later that it was a plane crash," Rhye told CNN. "Everyone else around me realized it too; a couple of dozen people all stopped what they were doing and stared as the cloud quickly grew and expanded miles in every direction. Within 20 minutes, the massive black cloud was over us in the sky."

Videos circulating on social media captured the terrifying sequence: several massive balls of flames erupting into the sky, followed by thick clouds of black smoke. Footage also showed flames on the plane's left wing and a trail of smoke before it briefly lifted off the ground, crashed, and exploded. A nearby building's roof appeared shredded near the end of the runway.

"Anybody who has seen the images, the video, knows how violent this crash is," Beshear said.

A shelter-in-place order was issued for all areas north of the airport to the Ohio River. The airport is located just 10 minutes from downtown Louisville, near residential neighborhoods, a water park, and museums.