Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear spooked CNN's Kate Bolduan by describing how nearly a Louisville plane crash could have been exponentially worse.
A UPS plane crashed Tuesday evening as it departed Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport for Honolulu, killing at least three crew members and at least six other people and sending up an enormous fireball and thick clouds of black smoke, and the Democratic governor told "CNN This Morning" the death toll would likely rise.
"We do think it's goingto grow, sadly," Beshear said. "But the searchand rescue mission went throughthe night has been able tointensify today, so hopefully itwon't grow by much. We alsohave two individuals in criticalcare at U of L hospital. We'repraying for them and for theirrecovery. It's hard to losenine plus people in such aviolent way."
However, Beshear said the crash could have been far worse.
"This plane barely missed arestaurant bar," he said. "It was veryclose to a very large Ford plantwith hundreds, if not a thousand-plus workers. It was very closeto our convention center that's having a big livestockshow that people were arrivingfor. So really tough, butrecognize it could be worse."
Bolduan was stunned by the disclosure.
"That just gave me chillsthinking about all of the peoplethat were right in the line ofthis crash," she said. "I mean, when you seethe debris field and whathappened with this plane, it'sterrifying. I mean, how muchdestruction and damage are wetalking about here?"
"Well, it's a huge amount ofof damage in about a city block,about a mile," Beshear replied. "Think about theplane loaded with 38,000 gallonsof air fuel hitting apetroleum, not refinery, butrecycler, which also added tothe to the challenges, and thenan auto parts lot, and so what wesaw is not just the directimpact and explosion of theplane, but everything that thenoccurred on the ground.Thankfully, there wasn't anysignificant hazardous materialinside the plane. The airquality conditions are improvingsignificantly. We now have ashelter-in-place [order] only around avery small area. We'remonitoring water, because of the air, the jet fuel. Butthe area that we're concernedabout is smaller thanoriginally anticipated, and thenwe've just got so manyincredible first responders onon the scene from dozens ofdifferent agencies that do sucha great job."
"So we are veryquickly getting a hold of theenvironmental search and rescueand other challenges we face," the governor added, "and we'll probably have somepretty close to to finalinformation mid-afternoon."