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Plumes of smoke rise from the area of a UPS cargo plane crash at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Nov. 4. (Jon Cherry/AP)

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LOUISVILLE, Ky.�� — First responders were searching for more victims Nov. 5 after a��UPS cargo plane crashed and exploded��in a massive fireball at the company’s global aviation hub in Kentucky, killing at least 12, authorities said.

The plane crashed about 5:15 p.m. Nov. 4 as it was departing for Honolulu from��UPS Worldport��at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Louisville.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear posted online Nov. 5 that 16 families who gathered at a reunification center “have reported loved ones unaccounted for.”

The airport is 7 miles from downtown Louisville, close to the Indiana state line, residential areas, a water park and museums. Emergency officials initially put out a shelter-in-place order for a 5-mile (8-kilometer) radius. By the morning of Nov. 5, that was reduced to a quarter of a mile radius, as officials monitored the air quality,

The tough news continues today as the death toll in Louisville has now risen to at least 11, and I expect it to be 12 by end of the day. Even harder news is that we believe one of those lost was a young child. 1/2 — Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear)

Over 200 emergency workers responded to the crash Nov. 4, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said.

“We'll continue to put every resource we have available to this, as well,” he told WLKY-TV on the morning of Nov. 5.

Video showed flames on the plane’s left wing and a trail of smoke. The plane then lifted slightly off the ground before��crashing and exploding��in flames. Video showed portions of a building’s shredded roof next to the end of the runway.

‘We All Know Somebody Who Works at UPS’

Beshear said he expects the death toll to increase.

Surveillance video shows fiery explosion as UPS plane rips through Kentucky businesses | Click on the image to read the full story — WBAL-TV 11 Baltimore (@wbaltv11)

“Anybody who has seen the images, the video, knows how violent this crash is,” he said.

The Louisville package handling facility is the company's largest, and UPS announced late Nov. 4 that package sorting at the center was halted. It didn't say when operations would resume. The hub employs thousands of workers, has 300 daily flights and sorts more than 400,000 packages an hour.

“We all know somebody who works at UPS,” Louisville Metro Council member��Betsy Ruhe��said. “And they’re all texting their friends, their family, trying to make sure everyone is safe. Sadly, some of those texts are probably going to go unanswered.”

Missing Loved Ones

Eric Richardson stood outside a police training academy, where people gathered waiting for word of their missing loved ones Nov. 4. He said was hoping for information about his girlfriend, who had been at a metal recycling business near the explosion and wasn’t answering her phone. Her phone’s live location said she was still there.

We will release more facts as they become available at — UPS (@UPS)

Bobby Whelan, Richardson’s friend, had been in front of her in line, but had left minutes before the explosion. He said he was about a quarter of a mile down the road when he heard what sounded like a bomb exploding.

“We don’t even want to think about anything but the best,” Whelan said. “All our friends were there.”

The governor said a business, Kentucky Petroleum Recycling, appeared to be “hit pretty directly,” and a nearby auto parts operation was also affected.

Tom Brooks Jr., who runs a metal recycling business down the street, said the unbelievable magnitude of the crash “just rocked the whole place.”

“This was massive. I mean, it literally looked like a war zone,” he said.

Destyn Mitchell was working as a host at an Outback restaurant, about a 15-minute drive from the crash, when she heard a loud boom.

“People who just sat down to eat got up and left in under 30 minutes and packed up their food because they wanted to hurry up and get home,” she said.

What Happened to the Plane?

The plane’s left wing caught fire and an engine fell off just before��it crashed and exploded��after takeoff in Kentucky, a federal investigator said Nov. 5, offering the first official details about the disaster.

After being cleared for takeoff, a large fire developed in the left wing, said Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation.

The plane gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of the runway before crashing just outside Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Inman told reporters.

Airport security video “shows the left engine detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll,” he said.

The cockpit voice recorder and data recorder were recovered, and the engine was discovered on the airfield, Inman said.

“There are a lot of different parts of this airplane in a lot of different places,” he said, describing a debris field that stretched for half a mile.

Written by Bruce Schreiner, Hallie Golden and Dylan Lovan. Golden reported from Seattle. AP reporters Ed White in Detroit, John Raby in Cross Lanes, W.Va., Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tenn., and Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.

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