(http://www.trbimg.com/img-520b8701/turbine/chi-alabama-plane-crash-20130814-001/600/600x339)
2 killed in crash of UPS cargo jet near Alabama airport (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-alabama-plane-crash-20130814,0,7674571.story)
Tribune staff and wire reports | 9:05 a.m. CDT, August 14, 2013
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama—
A large UPS cargo plane crashed early this morning near the airport in Birmingham, Alabama, killing the pilot and co-pilot, in the latest in a series of aviation accidents in the United States this year.
"I can confirm they were killed in the crash," Birmingham Mayor William Bell said of the pilot and co-pilot, who were not identified immediately. He added that there were no other casualties reported.
A fire in a sparsely populated area that broke out after the predawn crash was "under control" he said.
"It was quite a large fire and there were two to three explosions after the plane caught fire, after the crash itself," Bell said.
United Parcel Service Inc flight 1354, en route from Louisville, Kentucky, to Birmingham, crashed on approach about 5 a.m. Central Time, according to the FAA. The plane was identified as an Airbus A300. The plane had departed about an hour earlier, according to FlightAware.
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Prayers up for the families of the flight crew...
Do they know what the cause was yet? For some reason, my first thought was a shoulder held missile. No clue why I thought that. :???:
Still wide open at the moment, ma'am...
(http://a.abcnews.com/images/WNT/abc_wn_crash_130814_wg.jpg)
Flight Recorders Found in Deadly UPS Plane Crash (http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ups-plane-crash-rattles-residents-airport-19966731)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. August 15, 2013 (AP) |By JAY REEVES Associated Press
Investigators found flight recorders on Thursday that could...
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Basically, the article says that some of the witnesses report the aircraft on fire before it crashed, and that pieces of wreckage were dropping into folk's property along a wide area, but that there was no distress call made from the aircraft prior to the crash.
Mostly it does what newsies do when they don't have a lot to report: it provides 10 paragraphs of local residents whining about how dangerous and annoying it is to live under the approach to an airport runway. :whatever: