The UPS plane crash on approach in Birmingham comes after two other aircraft incidents in recent years at the shipping giant, including a 2010 crash in Dubai.
It is unknown at this time what caused the crash in Alabama.
In the Dubai incident, a UPS Boeing 747 crashed on take-off, killing two pilots. The flight was bound for Cologne, Germany. A government investigation implicated lithium-ion batteries that led to a fire, which resulted in the crash.
The report issued by the General Civil Aviation Authority of the United Arab Emirates said the Boeing 747 in that crash had a fire that developed in cargo in pallets and “escalated rapidly into a catastrophic uncontained fire.” The report included recommendations for regulators to develop standards on containers with suppression systems.
When the report on the Dubai incident was issued last month, UPS said it ordered 1,821 fire-resistant shipping containers to be delivered starting in September. The containers can contain a fire up to 1,200 degrees for more than four hours — offering enough time for pilots to land.
In 2006, a UPS plane caught fire after landing in Philadelphia. No one was injured in that incident.
UPS is based in Sandy Springs, but its airline is headquarted in Louisville, Ky.
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