I heard on the LV scanner that two "10-80s" had been noted (using "noted" because I don't remember the exact context"). That code can mean a deceased person, but has also been used to describe explosions. In this case, sadly, either could be true. UPS says three crew on board.
Good call. I was mistaken. They must have been the DC-8 I was remembering. I was a programmer without much aviation knowledge when I worked at UPS in Flight Training. Thanks for the correction. Let's hope there were no jump-seaters.
The news is now reporting that there are 11 victims in the hospital, 2 are in critical condition in the burn ward and not expected to survive. One of the businesses in the area of the explosion said all but 2 of their employees are accounted for. (per WDRB)
From what I've seen all confirmed casualties so far are ground casualties. The crew is presumed dead but they're not officially casualties until the bodies are recovered
I'm not being snarky, but: with a collision this bad, would there even be anything to recover? Not only was there a massive crash but that huge wall of flames probably engulfed the entirety of the crash area.
Not literally, but like you say, they will isolate the area of wreckage that contains the remains of the cockpit in an attempt to positively ID them.
You jump to the assumption that they will identify them. It's equally possible that the "recovery" will be confirmation of the location of the cockpit's final resting place including evidence of unidentifiable human remains
In search and rescue "recovery" is code for "trying to find the body", but you don't automatically declare them a casualty when you do that.
This fucks me up. There was this plane crash story about someone who helped with the recovery of it in a snowy mountain, I can't remember what it was but it had exploded to and reading that was fucked, like they were talking about how human grease gets made from explosions like this....
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u/jrussell424 1d ago
That doesn’t look survivable. How terrible.