An American Airlines jetliner on its way to the Dominican Republic with 255 people aboard crashed moments after takeoff from John F. Kennedy Airport in a residential neighborhood yesterday, setting homes on fire. There was no immediate word on the number of deaths or injuries.
The city -- already on edge after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack -- was put on high alert. Fighter jets were seen flying over the scene in the Rockaway section of the borough of Queens, in the southeastern part of New York City.
PHOTO: AP
Flight 587, an Airbus A300, went down shortly after 9am in the waterfront neighborhood 24km from Manhattan, setting buildings on fire in a densely populated area that is home to many firefighters who were among the dead and the rescuers at the World Trade Center. A plume of thick, black smoke could be seen miles away and flames billowed high above the treetops.
PHOTO: AP
The FAA said there were 246 passengers and nine crew members aboard the plane.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani canceled his morning events and headed to the scene, where he said: "People should remain calm. We're just being tested one more time and we're going pass this test, too."
"Now we should focus all our efforts on finding survivors," Giuliani said.
In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there were no unusual communications from the cockpit of the American Airlines plane. A senior administration official added, "It's looking like it's not a terrorist attack."
Fleischer declined to rule out terrorism as a possible cause of the attack, but said he would not dispute the assessment of the other official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At a White House briefing, Fleischer noted that the National Transportation Safety Board had been named the lead investigative agency into the crash. That signaled that authorities have no information other than that a mechanical malfunction -- and not a terrorist attack -- brought down the plane.
Fleischer cautioned that initial information often can turn out to be incorrect.
With the nation on high alert, a result of the Sept. 11 attacks, Fleischer said President George W. Bush was handed a note shortly before 9:30am that a plane had gone down.
Bush spoke with New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Governor George Pataki, while Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge went immediately to the White House Situation Room and initiated a conference call with other senior administration officials, Fleischer said.
Several eyewitnesses reported hearing explosions aboard the plane, and a piece of an engine came to rest outside a gas station in the Queens section of New York.
"There were no unusual communications with the cockpit," Fleischer said. He said investigators had not yet found the "black box that records important in-flight information.
In Taiwan, President Chen Shui-bian (
The president also ordered Tang Yao-ming (
Chen ordered Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Chen Chien-jen (程建人), Taiwan's representative in Washington, ordered the director of Taiwan's representative office in New York to check if any Taiwanese had been involved in the crash. Two Taiwan planes on their way to New York were diverted to other airports.
The crash triggered moments of intense concern inside the administration, struggling to cope with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax outbreak that followed a few weeks later.
But initial information seemed to allay concern that the crash was another bout of terrorism. "It's looking like it's not a terrorist attack, but we can't reach a firm conclusion yet," said one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
While Fleischer declined to second that, he said the president was aware of those reports. The spokesman added there was "understandable reason" why those statements had been made.
While the New York area airports were closed in the wake of the crash, Fleischer said officials did not intend to shut down the nation's airline system, as was done following the hijackings of Sept. 11.
All metropolitan area airports -- Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, New Jersey -- were closed after the crash, and international flights were diverted to other cities. All bridges and tunnels into the city were closed except to emergency vehicles.
At the UN headquarters, where ministers from the 189 member states were gathered for the General Assembly, all vehicle and pedestrian entry was barred.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said intelligence agencies, the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration were reviewing all recent intelligence for any signs that terrorism was involved.
In Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, relatives of passengers aboard the flight crowded the airport, sobbing and grasping each other after hearing of the crash.
"Not the child, please not the child,:" said Germania Brito who was waiting for her sister Mariana Flores, her sister's husband, John, and their 2-year-old son Isaias. "May God help us all."
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