Story highlights There was no distress call from the pilots prior to impact, the NTSB says 
 
 NTSB investigators unable to immediately retrieve plane's recorders, official says 
 
 The pilot and co-pilot of the UPS plane die in the crash 
 
 A photograph shows the jet's crumpled front end resting amid debris 
 
 The pilot and co-pilot of a UPS cargo plane did not issue a distress call prior to crashing while on approach Wednesday to Birmingham's airport, a National Transportation Safety Board official said. 
 
 While UPS said the status of its crew remained unconfirmed, Birmingham Airport Authority Chairwoman Gaynell Hendricks and the city's mayor confirmed the pilot and co-pilot died in the crash. 
 
 "It's a grim scene," Hendricks told CNN affiliate WBRC 
 
 The plane, an Airbus A300-600F, broke into pieces, spreading the majority of the debris over an area of about 300 yards, said Robert Sumwalt of the NTSB. A photograph provided by city officials shows the crumpled front portion of the plane resting in a debris-strewn field. 
 
 The plane, which took off from Louisville, Kentucky, went down around 4:45 a.m. on a street that runs parallel to the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, Mayor William Bell said. 
 
 Photos: Photos: UPS cargo plane crash Photos: Photos: UPS cargo plane crash UPS cargo plane crash – The pilot and co-pilot of a UPS cargo flight died Wednesday, August 14, when their Airbus A300 crashed on approach to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Alabama. Hide Caption 1 of 5 Photos: Photos: UPS cargo plane crash UPS cargo plane crash – The plane, which took off from Louisville, Kentucky, went down about 4:45 a.m., according to airport officials. Hide Caption 2 of 5 Photos: Photos: UPS cargo plane crash UPS cargo plane crash – What caused the jet to crash was unclear. The weather was calm at the time, according to Mayor William Bell. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team of investigators to the site. Hide Caption 3 of 5 Photos: Photos: UPS cargo plane crash UPS cargo plane crash – Fire crews investigate where a UPS cargo plane lies on a hill about a half-mile from the runway. Hide Caption 4 of 5 Photos: Photos: UPS cargo plane crash UPS cargo plane crash – Debris burns in front of the crash site. Hide Caption 5 of 5 
 
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 The location is about a half-mile north of the runway, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told CNN. 
 
 NTSB investigators have yet to retrieve the cockpit and voice recorders of the plane because the wreckage is still smoldering, Sumwalt said. Once the fire is out, authorities will retrieve the recorders, he said. 
 
 Even so, investigators have begun working to piece together what led to the crash. 
 
 The crew did not issue a distress call, Sumwalt said, confirming what the mayor said earlier. 
 
 The crew did not report any trouble, Bell said, citing conversations with control tower officials. Light showers and a visibility of 10 miles were reported in the area of the airport at the time of the crash, according to CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen. 
 
 A spokesman for Bell, the mayor, confirmed late Wednesday morning that no buildings were hit and no one on the ground was injured. 
 
 Alabama Power cut electricity to about 140 buildings near the crash site as a precaution, utility spokesman Michael Sznajderman told CNN. 
 
 Witness Peter Torres, a Civil Air Patrol member who said he is a former airline mechanic, said he thought he heard what sounded like a backfire from the jet's engines as the plane passed overhead. He rushed to his window. 
 
 "I saw the flash," of an apparent explosion, he said, followed by a "boom" that shook his home. 
 
 Airport neighbor Sharon Wilson told WBRC the plane seemed lower than usual for flights into the airport and sounded like it was sputtering as it flew overhead. 
 
 "We heard this loud boom, like, jump up out of your bed," she told the station. 
 
 The plane was one of two flights UPS sends to Birmingham each day, company spokesman Mike Mangeot told CNN affiliate WBRC 
 
 "This incident is very unfortunate, and our thoughts and prayers are with those involved," UPS Airlines President Mitch Nichols said in a statement. 
 
 The plane that crashed Wednesday was built in 2003 and had 11,000 hours in the air spread over 6,800 flights, Airbus said in a news release. 
 
 Only UPS and FedEx fly the A300 in the United States, according to its manufacturer, Airbus. While it was once used for commercial passenger flights in the United States, the plane is now used only for cargo flights. UPS has 53 of the planes, according to Airbus. 
 
 Wednesday's crash is the second involving an A300 in the United States. In 2001, an American Airlines A300 crashed in the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens, in New York City, shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport. 
 
 All 260 people on board the plane, as well as five people on the ground, were killed. 
 
 The cause was ultimately attributed to pilot error, according to the NTSB, which said the first officer put excessive pressure on the rudder pedal, causing the separation of the vertical stabilizer. 
 
 The Birmingham crash is the second fatal accident involving a large jet in the United States since early July, when an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crashed on landing at San Francisco International Airport. Three people died. 
 
 Wednesday's crash comes nearly three years after UPS's last major incident, the crash of a Boeing 747 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that killed two crew members. 
 
 Investigators traced the crash to a large fire in the cargo hold, which included a number of flammable lithium batteries, according to the country's General Civil Aviation Authority. 
 
 In 2006, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 flown by UPS caught fire after landing at Philadelphia International Airport. Three crew members on the plane evacuated with minor injuries, according to NTSB records. Most of the cargo was destroyed. ||||| A flight recorder revealed that pilots of a UPS cargo jet that crashed short of a runway at Birmingham's airport received warnings about their rate of descent seconds before impact, investigators said Friday. 
 
 Investigators scour a hillside looking for evidence in the fatal crash of a UPS cargo plane in Birmingham, Ala., on Friday, Aug. 16, 2013. The twin-engine Airbus A300 aircraft went down on Aug. 14 during... (Associated Press) 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board and FBI scour a field Friday, Aug. 16, 2013, north of the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport where UPS flight 1354 crashed on Wedesday, in Birmingham,... (Associated Press) 
 
 National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt told reporters during a briefing that a recorder captured the first of two audible warnings in the cockpit 16 seconds before the sound of an impact, either with trees or the ground. 
 
 The warnings indicated the A300 cargo plane was descending at a rate outside normal parameters given its altitude, Sumwalt said, but investigators haven't made any determination on the actual cause of the crash into an Alabama hillside. 
 
 "We haven't ruled anything in, haven't ruled anything out," he said. 
 
 The aircraft went down less than a mile from the end of Runway 18 at Birmingham's airport before dawn Wednesday. UPS has identified the victims of the crash as Capt. Cerea Beal, Jr., 58, of Matthews, N.C., and First Officer Shanda Fanning, 37, of Lynchburg, Tenn. 
 
 Landing on the runway can be tricky for pilots, an expert said, particularly those flying big jets like the twin-engine UPS cargo carrier. Sumwalt said the plane was being flown by the captain _ who had 8,600 hours of flight experience, including 3,200 hours in an A300 _ but investigators don't know whether Beal or Fanning had ever before landed on Runway 18. 
 
 "We're going to do our best to find out," he said. 
 
 Sumwalt said investigators will analyze the airplane's weight to determine whether it should have attempted a landing on the runway, the shorter of two runways at Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport. 
 
 With a large hill and trees at one end, the runway lacks the electronics for a full instrument landing. That forces pilots to make key judgments about altitude while aiming a descending aircraft at a runway that's 5,000 feet shorter than the airport's main runway, which was closed for maintenance work at the time of the crash. 
 
 Some pilots simply avoid landing on Runway 18 when possible, said veteran commercial pilot Ross Aimer. 
 
 "When I heard they were using Runway 18 it caught my attention because of that hill," said Aimer. "It's sad, but it didn't surprise me." 
 
 Aimer, a retired United Airlines captain, is now chief executive of Aero Consulting Experts, a firm based in Los Angeles. 
 
 The NTSB previously said a preliminary investigation didn't reveal any evidence of engine failure before the plane struck trees about one mile away from the end of the runway. It crashed into the bottom of a hill less than a quarter mile after hitting the trees. 
 
 The A300, which weighs about 172,700 pounds when empty, was at the end of a 45-minute flight from Louisville, Ky., to Birmingham when it went down. A flight summary from flightaware.com, which tracks airplanes, shows the aircraft made a descent in steps, which Aimer said is a "dive and drive" method common on runways with the same navigational guidance as Runway 18. 
 
 Sumwalt said the aircraft went down during its first landing attempt. Sumwalt said investigators have not found any problems with the runway's lights or navigation system, which typically provides pilots with information about their lateral position but not about their altitude, unlike those on runways where pilots can land using only instruments. 
 
 National Weather Service records from the morning of the crash show the plane would have descended through overcast conditions to only a few clouds at 1,100 feet. Within seconds after the plane hit a tree and at least one turbine sucked in wood, the twin-engine plane crashed. 
 
 It hit the base of that large hill mentioned by Aimer, who said he had landed on Runway 18 about a half-dozen times, including on some flights as a cargo pilot. 
 
 Located near the southern tip of the Appalachian foothills, Birmingham's airport is nestled in a low spot between Red Mountain to the south and hills that lie at the northern end of Runway 18, which is 7,000 feet long. The main runway is 12,000 feet long and runs east and west, meaning pilots don't have to negotiate the rough terrain. 
 
 The NTSB said the longer runway was closed for maintenance work on its lights early Wednesday, leaving the shorter runway as the only path to the ground. Runway 18 is an approved runway with a valid approach, Aimer said. 
 
 "It is definitely legal, but it I had a choice I'd use another runway first," he said. 
 
 A key task for investigators will be determining why the UPS jet was low enough to hit trees. The impact sheared off pieces of the aircraft and sent them crashing onto two homes along with large pieces of limbs. 
 
 Keenen Brown, 17, said he witnessed the crash while getting ready for work before dawn. Brown, who lives with relatives across the street from the crash site, said it was unusual to see such a large aircraft attempting to land on the runway. 
 
 "I saw the sky turn orange and I looked up and I saw it in the air on fire," Brown said. "I watched it hit the ground and dirt flew up. This whole area just shook." 
 
 Aimer said the flames could have been shooting from the plane after it struck the trees. ||||| View the flight tracking log for the UPS cargo plane that crashed in Birmingham this morning. 
 
 View the flight tracking log for the UPS cargo plane that crashed in Birmingham this morning. 
 
 UPDATE: WSMV has confirmed the identity of one of the pilots killed this morning as Shanda Fanning. 
 
 WSMV was tipped that there was a meeting of employees at the Jack Daniels distillery in Tenn. this morning to inform them of the development. Bret Fanning, the woman's husband, is part of the family that runs the distillery. 
 
 
 
 UPDATE: 8:15 a.m.: Alabama Power reports 76 customers are without power after the plane came into contact with the lines. 
 
 Power will be restored as soon as it's safe to do so. 
 
 
 
 UPDATE 7:50 a.m.: Bettina Boateng reports that the plane is broken in two pieces, with debris littered across the Airport Highlands or Zion City area. 
 
 The Birmingham-Shuttlesworth airport is still operating as normal. However, the field 900 yards north of the airport is still an active scene. The fire has been suppressed. 
 
 The mayor's office says no structures on the ground were damaged, but some trees and power lines were damaged. 
 
 
 
 The NTSB is expected to speak shortly on the crash. 
 
 Anyone with information on the incident is asked to send photos or information to wvtm13@wvtm.com. 
 
 
 
 UPDATE: The Birmingham Mayor's Office has confirmed that the pilot and copilot of the plane have died in the crash. We'll continue to update this story as information is confirmed. 
 
 
 
 A UPS Cargo Plane is on fire after crashing in east Birmingham early this morning. 
 
 
 
 The plane crashed near 19th Avenue North and North East Lake Boulevard in an open field that used to be a neighborhood. That field is now owned by the airport. 
 
 A statement from UPS said they are still working to determine details of the incident. 
 
 
 
 According to the Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen the A300 plane crashed on approach to the airport just before dawn. Bergen says the plane was en route from Louisville, KY. 
 
 Alabama's 13 was on the scene and say the plane is still burning. The crew spoke to neighbors and they say the heard a large boom and then several other explosions. The media has been asked to move back due these explosions. There could be debris covering about half a mile. 
 
 Again Alabama's 13 has a crew on the scene and will bring you the latest as we receive more information.
– The pilot and co-pilot of a UPS cargo plane are dead after the plane crashed near the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport this morning, the mayor's office says. The Airbus A300 went down before dawn in calm weather as it approached the airport, report AP and CNN. The pilot and co-pilot were the only people aboard, says a UPS spokesperson. It went down in a field owned by the airport, reports WVTM, about a half-mile away from one of the runways. The plane had taken off from Louisville, Ky.