It began as a routine cargo flight bound for Honolulu and ended in an inferno that has reignited memories of one of America's darkest aviation disasters. The crash of UPS Flight 2976 in Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday afternoon has drawn chilling comparisons to 1979's American Airlines Flight 191 tragedy, still the deadliest air crash in US history.
Like Flight 191, which fell from the sky moments after take-off from Chicago O'Hare, the UPS cargo jet, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and the DC-10's successor, plunged shortly after leaving the runway at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, exploding into flames and leaving devastation in its wake.
