The plane left Louisville, an air hub for UPS, at 5:04 a.m. New York time and was northeast of the Birmingham airport at 5:47 a.m. when industry data tracker FlightAware.com received its last report on the jet. At that point, it was descending from about 850 feet above the ground, FlightAware data show.
Planes at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport were under instrument flight rules at the time of the crash, according to FlightAware. That means pilots would use cockpit instruments, not visual observations, in takeoffs and landings. FlightAware said visibility was about 6 miles amid mist and a layer of broken clouds at 700 feet above the ground.
“We will immediately engage with the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation, and we will work exhaustively on response efforts,” UPS Airlines President Mitch Nichols said in a statement. Atlanta-based UPS is the world’s largest package-delivery company.
Airbus said it was assessing the situation, and Pratt & Whitney, the United Technologies Corp. unit that made the engines on the jet, said it would work with accident investigators.
UPS Cargo-Jet Crash Kills Two Near Airport in Alabama - Bloomberg