By Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - US investigators said Thursday that they are reviewing maintenance records of the UPS cargo plane that crashed earlier this week in Louisville, Kentucky after the aircraft had been grounded in San Antonio, Texas for more than a month.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spokesman Todd Inman said investigators are examining what type of work was performed on the MD-11 aircraft, which spent about six weeks in San Antonio before returning to service.
“We have actually started to pull those records down,” he told reporters.
Inman said more than 30 NTSB personnel are on site, supported by specialists in Washington, DC and across the country.
Preliminary flight data showed the aircraft was at an altitude of 475 feet and a speed of 183 knots before it crashed around 5.13 pm local time (2213GMT) Tuesday, Inman said.
The information will be analyzed with data from the flight recorders to establish a detailed timeline of events, he added.
The 34-year-old MD-11 crashed shortly after takeoff from Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport, killing at least 12 people, including a child, according to officials.