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At least nine individuals have died and 11 others were hurt following a freight aircraft went down while taking off from a major air hub in Kentucky's largest city on Tuesday evening.

Aviation experts believe the aircraft went down due to a single engine malfunctioned and a second seemed compromised while lifting off.

The exact cause remains unknown why the aircraft failed, prompting a huge explosion to ignite after it failed to take-off from the airstrip. Footage showed flames were consuming a single wing of the aircraft while it was attempting to take off, which may have spread across the aircraft and caused the explosion, or the jet could have caught fire after colliding with ground-based obstacles.

What's clear is that the 144,000 litres of jet fuel on board the trijet aircraft needed for the flight likely escalated the fire, which rapidly extended to several buildings past the airstrip and continued burning for hours.

What initiated the incident?

The shipping giant operates from the Louisville air hub as a logistics center for its global operations and its Flight 2976 was beginning of a 6,920 kilometer trip to Hawaii's capital when the cargo plane initiated departure.

Tracking information from flight monitoring services shows the plane started moving along the designated runway at around 5:15 PM local and managed to reach a top speed of 344km/h.

However, confirmed videos demonstrate that when the plane reached this speed a fire had completely engulfed its port side and the aircraft failed to gain altitude before the enormous detonation.

Authorities issued a local safety directive to area inhabitants and dispatched numerous fire crews to the scene.

The state's governor confirmed details visible in security camera recordings that depict the plane traveling just feet above the surface before a bright flash consumed the aircraft. It is then seen slamming into the terrain as a huge fireball erupts around it about a minute into its journey.

Authenticated footage recorded by motorists on a nearby highway showed the flames erupting into the skyline while later videos revealed smoke billowing from the scene.

Aerial images shown on local media depicted wreckage scattering across the airstrip and falling onto the tops of at least two local businesses.

What could have caused the crash?

Air traffic control communications reviewed are largely garbled and filled with static so no meaningful conversation can be discerned about the crash as it unfolded.

But analysts suggested that a dramatic failure of multiple engines may have been responsible for the tragedy.

The trijet cargo aircraft uses three powerplants. Two are mounted under the wings, and a third is built into the rear section at the base of the vertical stabilizer.

Footage confirmed showed a blaze engulfing the left wing of the aircraft, which then tilted to the left as it tried to achieve altitude and take-off.

Multiple specialists separately proposed the portside engine may have detached from the plane following a technical or physical breakdown.

Additional photographs taken after the crash displayed a burned powerplant sitting on the turf adjacent to the airstrip.

An experienced former aviator 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 tragedy, in which 273 people were fatally injured when the plane's engine detached as it departed from Chicago's major airport. Engine components had been compromised when it was installed on the aircraft, but the expert stated it was premature to determine whether a similar fault led to the powerplant separation on the trijet.

The specialist explained the cargo plane would have been able to fly with just two engines but the destruction caused by the fire on the left wing was likely so great it caused the plane's third engine to fail to produce power.

"With such a catastrophic event we cannot know additional destruction was done when the powerplant separated," he said.

Another aviation expert observed the video evidence appeared to show the third engine had been compromised because it expelled a burst of smoke. The issue could have happened while it was struck by wreckage from the fire and the powerplant separation.

"The upper engine that released smoke seems to shut down right after," the expert said. "That left only the starboard powerplant generating power, resulting in a significant thrust asymmetry and making the plane incapable to achieve altitude.

"Failing two powerplants while departing leaves the aircraft with only a third of its power and minimal opportunity of maintaining flight, especially at maximum take-off weight," the expert added.

Reasons for extensive destruction

Footage from the aftermath showed a situation of total disorder with numerous blazes blazing across a large swathe of the location and smoke billowing into the sky.

The aircraft, which was three decades old and had been operated for passenger travel until 2006, had already completed one return journey from the Kentucky hub to the East Coast on Tuesday.

It has not been confirmed which goods was aboard the flight bound for Hawaii, though authorities stated the aircraft didn't contain anything that would create a heightened risk of environmental hazard.

"This was a long-haul cargo flight from Kentucky to Hawaii, so the MD-11 was transporting a lot of jet fuel," a specialist commented. "The substantial fuel quantity not only diminished capability but also explains the large fireball observed post-accident."

Authorities told reporters that the plane was transporting 144,000 litres of fuel for the extended trip when it crashed. The blaze was probably intensified on the ground because the plane crashed into a fuel recycling business next to the airport.

A specialist indicated investigators will now focus on the origin of the blaze, and "whether debris struck the central powerplant, and whether earlier maintenance on the left engine were a factor." The expert continued: "Weather conditions were calm and clear, so weather-related causes are improbable."

The National Transportation Safety Board has sent a team to the location and will take charge of the investigation into the accident's origins, though this can take up to two years to finalize.