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Death toll in Louisville UPS plane crash rises to 9

Death toll in Louisville UPS plane crash rises to 9
The death toll from the crash of a UPS cargo plane that erupted into a fireball moments after takeoff in Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday has risen to nine, city and state officials said Wednesday. (X/@CoffindafferFBI)
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Updated 8 sec ago

Death toll in Louisville UPS plane crash rises to 9

Death toll in Louisville UPS plane crash rises to 9
  • Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will be on site later Wednesday morning to begin the process of finding out what went wrong
  • Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said nine dead people had been found at the scene of the crash

KENTUCKY, USA: The death toll from the crash of a UPS cargo plane that erupted into a fireball moments after takeoff in Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday has risen to nine, city and state officials said Wednesday.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will be on site later Wednesday morning to begin the process of finding out what went wrong when the 34-year-old MD-11 cargo plane caught fire around 5:13 p.m. ET Tuesday and then crashed.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said nine dead people had been found at the scene of the crash. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on social media it was possible there would be more fatalities. The plane had a crew of three according to UPS and officials said none of the crew survived.

Several buildings in an industrial area beyond the runway were on fire after the crash, with thick, black smoke seen rising into the evening sky.
Officials said 11 victims had been taken to hospitals on Tuesday.
A government official told Reuters at least 10 others remain unaccounted for. Beshear told CNN that two people remain in critical condition and added it could have been much worse.
ā€œThis plane barely missed a restaurant bar. It was very close to a very large Ford plant with hundreds, if not a thousand plus workers,ā€ Beshear said. ā€ It was very close to our convention center that’s having a big livestock show that people were arriving for.ā€ The international airport in Louisville reopened to air traffic early on Wednesday, though the runway where the accident happened is expected to remain closed for another 10 days, officials said.
UPS said Wednesday it canceled a parcel sorting shift that usually begins in the midmorning at its facility at the airport after it had halted package sorting operations Tuesday.
US aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said on Wednesday he has not seen any evidence of a link between the accident and a 36-day US government shutdown that has strained air traffic control.
NTSB investigators will be looking to retrieve the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder that will shed light on the crash.
Brickhouse said investigators are expected to focus on the number one engine which was seen on video to be ignited, and appeared to have separated from the aircraft. ā€œIt is designed to fly if you lose one engine, but we need to see the effect of losing that engine on the rest of the aircraft,ā€ Brickhouse said.
The triple-engine plane was fueled for an 8-1/2 hour flight to Honolulu.
It was the first UPS cargo plane to crash since August 2013, when an Airbus aircraft went down on a landing approach to the international airport in Birmingham, Alabama, killing both crew.


Ukraine imports gas via Balkans from Greece to keep system running after Russian strikes

Updated 4 sec ago

Ukraine imports gas via Balkans from Greece to keep system running after Russian strikes

Ukraine imports gas via Balkans from Greece to keep system running after Russian strikes
Ukraine also imports about 23 mcm of gas daily, including nearly 10 mcm from Hungary, about 8 mcm from Poland and about 5 mcm from Slovakia
The Transbalkan route was not used in September and October, and prior to that operated only in July and August

KYIV: Ukraine has resumed gas imports from a pipeline that runs across the Balkan peninsula to Greece, to keep its heating and electric systems running through the winter after widespread damage from intensified Russian attacks.
Russia intensified strikes on Ukraine’s gas sector in October, depriving Ukraine of at least half of its own gas production, forcing it to import an additional 4 billion cubic meters of gas to compensate for the decline.
Data from the Ukrainian gas transit operator showed on Wednesday that Ukraine will receive 1.1 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas from the Transbalkan route on Wednesday, after the import of 0.78 mcm on Tuesday. The route links Ukraine to LNG terminals in Greece, via Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria.
Ukrainian energy consultancy ExPro said last month that Greek DEPA Commercial, D.Trading — a subsidiary of Ukraine’s largest private energy firm DTEK — and Swiss Axpo Trading had booked capacity to import gas from Greece to Ukraine with a daily amount of 0.6 million cubic meters.
Ukraine also imports about 23 mcm of gas daily, including nearly 10 mcm from Hungary, about 8 mcm from Poland and about 5 mcm from Slovakia.
The Transbalkan route was not used in September and October, and prior to that operated only in July and August.
The pipeline was not in demand due to the high cost of gas transit across the four countries and via Ukraine. However, tariff reductions by Moldovan and Romanian operators had helped boost the booking of capacities in November, ExPro said.

LONG RECOVERY
High pressure must be maintained in gas pipelines, and import via the Transbalkan route is one of the elements that helps the Ukrainian system remain operational when domestic production can no longer pump enough gas into the pipes.
Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Kyiv-based Center of Energy Studies, said Russian attacks had damaged a significant number of gas compressors, complicating the restoration of the power system.
ā€œWe will not restore 30 percent to 40 percent (of destroyed capacity) during the heating season because the compressor stations have been destroyed,ā€ Kharchenko told a televised briefing.
Compressors for the gas system are expensive at the best of times and unavailable worldwide now because of huge demand, he said.
ā€œ(Gas) production has been affected, and restoring the compressors is not a matter of months. Restoring production will take 15-18 months,ā€ Kharchenko added.