UPS plane crash near Birmingham, pilots killed

UPS plane crash: A UPS cargo plane crashed in a field Wednesday morning, killing the two pilots on board, says Birmingham mayor.

A large UPS cargo plane crashed early Wednesday morning near the airport in Birmingham, Alabama, killing the pilot and co-pilot, the city's mayor said.

"I can confirm they were killed in the crash," said Birmingham Mayor William Bell.

United Parcel Service Inc flight 1354, en route from Louisville, Kentucky, to Birmingham, crashed on approach about 6 a.m. (1000 GMT), according to the FAA. The plane was identified as an Airbus A300.

A fire in a sparsely populated area that broke out after the crash was "under control," he said, adding that there were no other casualties.

The Associated Press reports that Toni Herrera-Bast, a spokeswoman for Birmingham's airport authority, says there are no homes in the immediate area of the crash.

Herrera-Bast says the plane crashed in "open land" she described as a grassy field on the outskirts of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. She says the crash hasn't affected airport operations.

UPS, the world's largest package-delivery company, said it was "still determining the details of the incident."

An Airbus spokesman in Toulouse, France, said he had no information on the incident.

It was the latest in a series of air accidents in the United States in recent months.

In July, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crashed while landing in San Francisco, killing three people and injuring more than 180.
Also last month, the front landing gear of a Southwest Airlines Co Boeing 737 jet collapsed on touchdown at New York City's LaGuardia Airport, injuring eight.