Huge Plume Of Dense Smoke From Kentucky Plane Crash Tragedy Tracked On Radar

National Weather Service
doppler radar detected the
huge smoke plume from
the plane crash near
Louisville, Ky
yesterday. The smoke looks
like an elongated rainstorm
spreading north toward
southern Indiana. 

The tragic plane crash yesterday in Louisville, Kentucky was made even worse by the massive amounts of jet fuel involved.  

That burning jet fuel, and burning oil from a petroleum recycling plant that was hit by the crash, created one of the most intense smoke plumes I can remember. At least aside from big wildfires and volcanoes. 

The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 UPS cargo plane was taking off from Louisville en route to Honolulu when it crashed into an industrial area during the late afternoon rush hour. 

At last report, nine people were reported dead and up to 16 are missing. At least 11 people are injured. There were three people aboard the plane, meaning the rest of the casualties were victims on the ground. 

The plane, and exploding jet fuel slammed into several businesses. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said one of the businesses, Kentucky Petroleum Recycling, was hit "pretty directly," as he put it. 

This implies that in addition to the 38,000 gallons of jet fuel, weighing 233,000 pounds on the ill-fated plane, a large quantity of some type of petroleum products were at the business that was hit. The plane itself was carrying as many as 20,000 packages. 

Video images also showed dozens of cars on fire after the crash. 

All this created epic amounts of thick, black smoke. The wind was blowing from the south at about 7 mph, so the huge plume billowed northward. The smoke plume passed downtown Louisville just to the east, and greyed out the sky in the city's northern and eastern suburbs and on into southern Indiana.

The smoke was so dense and so extensive that National Weather Service radar showed the plume extending more than 20 miles from northwest of Okolona, Kentucky on up to River Bluff, in southern Indiana. 

Other than in large forest fires, it's unusual for weather radar to track a plume of smoke over that distance. Most fires don't create enough smoke to create as big a return on Doppler radar. 

The smoke was so thick that a shelter in place notification was in effect for a time from the airport all the way north to the Ohio River. 

A satellite system designed to detect heat from forest fires (helping firefighters assess the intensity and direction of fires) detected the explosion and blaze from the Louisville plane crash. 

The pixels in the heat detecting satellite are large, but even if a very small portion of that area is burning, the satellite imagery can detect it and display it as a large gray square. A loop in this link shows the initial dark square south of downtown Louisville at about the time of the crash. The grey square fades as the fire begins to subside. 

As horrible as this plane crash was, it could have been worse. The crashing plane narrowly missed a convention center where people were gathering for a livestock show. The crash also just missed the crowded bar and restaurant. Staff and patrons got out safely. The crash also just missed a huge Ford assembly plant with hundreds of workers inside.

Video:

Aerial video of the crash aftermath shows the extent of fire and smoke billowing over the Louisville area. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.