NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2001

At least six other people were reported missing on the ground.

The crash of American Flight 587, carrying 246 passengers and a crew of nine en route to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, set off fires in about a dozen buildings, with the fire scene encompassing a four-block area.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Marion Blakey said investigators had recovered the so-called black box and would be sending it to Washington for analysis. She said that large sections of the aircraft were recovered from nearby Jamaica Bay and that pieces were "scattered some distance."

One of the two General Electric CF-6 engines on the plane fell off and landed in the parking lot of a gas station, according to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who added that one wing of the plane was pulled from the bay and that the engine had fallen and landed separately.

"I don't believe there are any survivors," he told reporters.

The flight, which was to have taken off at 8:40 a.m., left from JFK's 31-left runway at 9:13 a.m. The FAA said the plane was airborne "minutes" before it lost contact with air controllers at 9:17 a.m. and crashed across Jamaica Bay, about five miles from the airport.

FAA spokesman William Shuman said there was "no indication of foul play" but the FAA issued a "ground stop" in a 25-mile radius, meaning no flights would land or take off from White Plains, La Guardia, Newark and JFK airports.

Witnesses Report Hearing Explosion

Witnesses said they heard an explosion, but Shuman said the explosive detection system was in place and operating at JFK at the time of the flight.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the crash was being treated as an accident. But, "We have not ruled anything in, not ruled anything out."

Blakey said while the plane's manifest was being scrutinized, "all information we have currently is that this is an accident."

The NTSB established a "go team," and Blakey said up to 100 investigators would be on the scene. The NTSB will lead the investigation unless there is an indication of foul play. Blakey said the agency was working closely with the FBI.

The FBI had personnel at the scene of the crash. An FBI spokeswoman in Washington said the bureau had not reached any conclusion about any explosion on board the aircraft before the crash, but added that it was impossible to rule anything out this early in the investigation.

American Airlines Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Donald Carty spoke with reporters briefly from company headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, before leaving on a flight to New York. He said the airline's focus would be on helping the families of those on the flight.

Carty called the situation a "difficult time for the nation, a very difficult time for the airline industry and a difficult time for American Airlines."

Dale Morris, spokesman for American Airlines, told United Press International, "We're sure there are casualties," but he did not know how many and had "just a preliminary list" of passengers from which the airline was working. He said the airline had not received any threats before the crash.

At least 15 people had been treated at hospitals for minor wounds and smoke inhalation. Witnesses said they had not seen any survivors pulled from the wreckage.

The crash comes two months and a day after two planes, one of them an American Airlines flight, crashed into the World Trade Center.

In Washington, a Pentagon official said there was no indication of a distress call before the aircraft crashed. Fighter jets were flying combat air patrols in the area but did not respond, he said.

Fighter jets have been flying almost constant combat air patrols over New York and Washington since Sept. 11, and NATO dispatched five Airborne Warning and Control System surveillance aircraft to monitor the East Coast.

A statement by the Toulouse, France-based Airbus Industrie confirmed the American Airlines plane was one of its A-300 aircraft.

The crash area is called Far Rockaway, a residential area in the borough of Queens, a thin peninsula from the mainland sticking west southwesterly into the Atlantic Ocean and across Jamaica Bay from John F. Kennedy International Airport. The neighborhood was described as populated by many Irish-Americans and firefighters.

"Rockaway ... was particularly hard hit with the number of firefighters lost and city workers killed in the World Trade Center, and as I came in I saw a church where I must have been 20 times for funeral and wakes," Giuliani said. "We will do everything we can do for these people. New York is being tested one more time. We're going to pass this test, too."

By noon, all bridges and tunnels in and out of New York City, which had been closed, were open except for three in the surrounding area of the plane crash: Cross Bay, Marine Park and Atlantic Beach Bridges, according to the city's emergency office said.

City officials evacuated and closed the Empire State Building as a precaution. The building was expected to reopen today.

The United Nations, which had been locked down, was reopened to pedestrian traffic, with delegates and staff instructed to use the East 46th Street entrance. Officials decided against evacuation.

Eyewitnesses described the plane's descent as a nose dive into the ground. "I observed a nose dive, no fire and pieces falling," said a man identified only as Andrew, who watched the plane crash.

An unidentified man, holding his head in disbelief, said in broken English, "I see plane fall down, straight."

The Rev. Louis Degaetano, an assistant teacher at St. Francis de Sales, said he was in the gym when the plane hit.

"I saw a blur out the window and heard a large explosion," he said. "The building started to shake. I started to run toward the fire. I saw a lot of the houses were burning and people were running to get away."

A woman who lived in the area told WCBS-TV she did not hear an explosion. Susan Locke, who lives five blocks from the scene said: "It sounded like a rumble. I didn't hear an explosion. I looked up and saw a plane head straight down. It nosed down."

A New York Fire Department spokesman said there was a five-alarm fire with an original approximate address at Beach 133rd Street and Newport Avenue and a three-alarm fire nearby at Beach 128th Street. About 400 firefighters are involved in fighting the fires.

A UPI photographer, Ezio Peterson, was taking a taxicab to the scene of the crash and made it through several police checkpoints but was stopped well away from the site. Police told him it was because his cab driver, a 38-year-old Indian man who has driven cabs in New York for seven years, appeared Middle Eastern. The photographer said police had four or five cab drivers detained because, police said, no one who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent was being allowed closer to the site or allowed to leave the area.

A family center was being established for family members of those on the American Airlines flight at the Rockaway Ramada Inn. The airline also established a phone number for family members at 1-800-245-0999.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said at the U.N. Security Council meeting on counterterrorism: "The reports I have so far suggest it was an accident. The majority of those on board were Dominican," on their way back to the Dominican Republic.

The council, just before holding a meeting of foreign ministers on counterterrorism, issued a statement about the crash, expressing "deep distress and shock."

Ambassador Patricia Durrant of Jamaica, the council's president for November, read aloud the statement: "On behalf of the members of the council I wish to convey our heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the government and people of the United States, and to the families of those who lost their lives in this terrible incident."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared shocked as he addressed a news conference welcoming Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

He said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and the American people at this time. I don't think it is sensible to say anything further." Copyright 2001 by United Press International.

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