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At least nine people have died and 11 left injured after a freight aircraft crashed during departure from an international airport in Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday night.

Aircraft specialists believe the plane crashed due to a single engine malfunctioned and a second seemed compromised during take-off.

It is unclear why the aircraft failed, prompting a massive fireball to erupt after it failed to take-off from the runway. Footage showed flames were consuming one wing of the aircraft during its takeoff attempt, which may have spread across the aircraft and triggered the blast, or the jet could have caught fire after colliding with ground-based obstacles.

What's clear is that the 144,000 litres of fuel on board the trijet aircraft required for the journey probably intensified the fire, which quickly spread to multiple structures past the airstrip and continued burning for hours.

What initiated the incident?

The shipping giant uses Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport as a distribution hub for its global operations and its Flight 2976 was at the start of a 6,920 kilometer journey to Honolulu in Hawaii when the cargo plane initiated departure.

Tracking information from flight monitoring services shows the plane began to taxi along the 17R runway at around 17:15 local time and attained a maximum velocity of 344km/h.

However, confirmed videos demonstrate that by the time the plane achieved this velocity a fire had completely engulfed its left wing and the plane couldn't climb before the enormous detonation.

Authorities issued a shelter-in-place order to area inhabitants and dispatched hundreds of firefighters to the scene.

The state's governor verified details seen in CCTV footage that depict the aircraft flying just metres off the ground before a intense light consumed the aircraft. It is then seen slamming into the ground as a huge fireball erupts around it about a minute into its journey.

Authenticated footage taken by drivers on adjacent roads displayed the flames erupting into the skyline while subsequent recordings showed smoke pouring from the area.

Aerial images shown on regional news outlets depicted debris showering the runway and landing on the tops of at least two local businesses.

What could have caused the crash?

ATC transmissions reviewed are largely garbled and filled with static so no clear dialogue can be discerned about the crash as it unfolded.

However, experts suggested that a catastrophic malfunction of multiple engines may have been responsible for the disaster.

The trijet cargo aircraft uses three powerplants. Two are installed under the wings, and a third is positioned in the tail at the bottom of the tail fin.

Footage confirmed showed a blaze engulfing the port wing of the aircraft, which then leaned leftward as it tried to achieve altitude and become airborne.

Two experts independently suggested the portside engine may have detached from the plane after suffering from a mechanical or structural failure.

Separate images captured post-accident showed a burned powerplant sitting on the turf next to the runway.

A retired airline pilot and aviation safety expert said that it was "almost unheard of" for an powerplant to separate in flight.

The expert recalled the 1979 American Airlines Flight 191 disaster, in which 273 individuals were fatally injured after the plane's engine detached as it took off from Chicago's major airport. Parts of the engine had been damaged when it was replaced on the plane, but the specialist stated it was too early to say whether a similar fault caused the engine to detach on the MD-11.

The specialist said the freight aircraft would have been able to fly with only two powerplants but the damage caused by the wing blaze was probably extensive enough it resulted in the plane's third engine to lose thrust.

"With such a catastrophic event we cannot determine additional destruction was done when the powerplant separated," the expert commented.

Another aviation expert observed the footage appeared to show the remaining powerplant had been damaged because it released smoke. The damage could have happened while it was struck by wreckage from the fire and the engine detaching.

"The tail-mounted powerplant that released smoke seems to shut down right after," the specialist stated. "This left just the starboard powerplant producing thrust, creating a severe power imbalance and leaving the aircraft unable to gain height.

"Failing two powerplants while departing results in only a fraction of its thrust and minimal opportunity of maintaining flight, especially at maximum take-off weight," the specialist added.

Reasons for extensive destruction

Post-accident videos revealed a situation of total disorder with numerous blazes blazing across a large swathe of the site and smoke billowing into the sky.

The plane, which was three decades old and had been used as a passenger plane before conversion, had previously made one round trip from Louisville to Baltimore in Maryland on Tuesday.

Authorities haven't verified which goods was aboard the flight bound for Hawaii, though authorities stated the plane was not carrying anything that would pose an increased danger of environmental hazard.

"This was a long-haul cargo flight from Kentucky to Hawaii, so the MD-11 was carrying a lot of jet fuel," an expert said. "That heavy fuel load not only diminished capability but also accounts for the massive explosion observed post-accident."

Officials told reporters that the aircraft was carrying 38,000 gallons of jet fuel for the long journey when it went down. The fire was likely amplified on the ground because the plane crashed into a fuel processing facility adjacent to the airfield.

A specialist said investigators will now focus on the origin of the blaze, and "if wreckage hit the central powerplant, and if previous repairs on the portside powerplant were a factor." The expert continued: "Atmospheric conditions were favorable, so weather-related causes are unlikely."

The federal investigation agency has dispatched personnel to the site and will now lead the probe into the accident's origins, though this can take up to two years to finalize.