Two reported dead in UPS plane crash

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Birmingham News is reporting two pilots on a UPS cargo plane died when the plane crashed just before dawn Wednesday.

An airport spokeswoman says the large UPS cargo plane that crashed went down in an open field just outside an airport in Birmingham, Ala.

Toni Herrera-Bast, a spokeswoman for Birmingham's airport authority, says there are no homes in the immediate area of the crash.

U.S. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says the A300 plane crashed around 5 a.m. CDT on approach to the airport before dawn Wednesday.

Bergen says the plane was en route from Louisville, Ky.

Herrera-Bast says the plane crashed in "open land" she described as a grassy field on the outskirts of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. She says the crash hasn't affected airport operations.