At least nine people are dead after a UPS aircraft crashed on Tuesday upon departing the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky, authorities said, sending a massive plume of smoke into the air following the fiery crash.

More than two dozen officials with the National Transportation and Safety Board are on site and have begun sifting through the mangled remnants of a UPS cargo plane that crashed after an engine detached during takeoff near Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.

The MD-11 that exploded spent much of September and October at ST Engineering at San Antonio International Airport. The company maintains the carrier's fleet.

LOCATION AND SCALEThe Worldport facility in Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport spans about 5.2 million square feet, or roughly 90 football fields and serves as the global air logistics nerve center for UPS. Handles around 2 million packages per day. The automated sorting system can process up to 420,000 packages/letters per hour.

A UPS cargo flight 2976 crashed around 5:15 ET after it took off from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Kentucky, en route to Honolulu, Secretary of the US Department of Transportation Sean Duffy said. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-11.

The crash near the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport marked the deadliest accident in UPS Airlines history.