LOUISVILLE, Ky. (LEX18) — It's been 36 hours since a deadly UPS plane crash in Louisville, and the investigation continues as officials work to restore normal airport operations while searching through debris.
Officials have reopened two runways at the Louisville International Muhammad Ali Airport and will keep the other closed as they continue to clean up the remaining debris from the crash site.
Search and rescue teams have begun digging through the charred debris that remains on the runway, searching for anyone who is still considered missing. The National Transportation Safety Board says more than 30 of its people are investigating the crash.
So far, investigators have determined the aircraft's last reported altitude was 475 feet while traveling at a speed of 183 knots.
It was reported that the plane was in San Antonio for six weeks for maintenance, but NTSB confirmed UPS says no maintenance was done the day of the crash that would have delayed the flight.
"We will do everything we needed to find out what happened and to figure out from it happening again. We have no problem if we need to. We've reconstructed entire planes that have been in the ocean before. The main thing is we understand this and get answers," Todd Inman with NTSB said.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced that urban search and rescue is looking for any leftover materials from inside the aircraft that were not destroyed in the crash. NTSB is also bringing in a subcontractor to help monitor the air quality within a quarter mile of the crash site.
"It's during times like this where coming together is so important. And being together as a community can help in the healing process and help in the grieving process and help as we can all move forward into the future," Greenberg said.
Greenberg says the focus is not only cleaning up the debris, but making sure power is restored to those who have lost it and getting roads like Grade Lane back open to the public sooner rather than later.
The National Transportation Safety Board assures people in the area that there are no readings for health hazards in the air quality, which is why the shelter-in-place has been reduced.
"We were very quickly able to deploy air monitors right after the crash," Director Jody Meiman said.
The NTSB also confirmed that flight data and audio recordings from the black box inside the cockpit is being extracted. They have 63 hours worth of data from the flight data recorder and two hours of audio including the crash from the cockpit voice recorder.
A foreign object debris walk was also conducted on the runway.
"During the FAD walk on 17R we found multiple pieces of engine fan blades. Along with the main component of the main engine of the number one engine which is on the left side of the aircraft," Inman said.
As for the significance of the damage, Greenberg describes seeing the tail of the plane sticking out of a storage silo and the top of it miles away, completely charred.
"You hear people say, 'Oh, you've only seen that in the movies.' This was worse than the movies. Half a mile long, standing there where you can just see the destruction. The charred mangled metal, in some cases at that point, there was still smoke coming from miles of debris," Greenberg said.
Greenberg asks anyone with a loved one who might still be missing to contact the city immediately, as they could find more people within the debris.
