A board member of the federal agency investigating the deadly crash of a UPS plane attempting to take off from Louisville's airport said Wednesday its left engine detached on the airfield before crashing just past the runway.

National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman briefed the press in Louisville about the agency's investigation of the crash scene, which has a debris field half a mile long stretching south from the Muhammad Ali International Airport runway.

Inman said that after the MD-11 cargo jet was cleared for takeoff Tuesday, at approximately 5:15 p.m. "a large plume of fire in the area of the left wing occurred during the takeoff roll."

"The plane lifted off and gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of runway 17 and shortly after clearing that fence,

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