More than 250 feared dead in New York plane crash

Published: 12 November 2001

Plane crash horror hit New York again today when a passenger jet with more than 250 people on board plunged into a residential area of the city.

The American Airlines' Airbus A300 went down in the borough of Queens - around 15 miles from the scene of devastation caused by the September 11 suicide hijackings in Manhattan.

One of the General Electric engines fell from the 1988-built plane before it crashed.

A US Government official said it was still not clear whether terrorism had caused the crash or not, but that no credible threat had been received before the plane - bound for the Dominican Republic - had taken off.

The crash, at around 2.15pm UK time, caused about a dozen buildings to catch fire. New York's three commercial airports were closed, causing some US-bound UK aircraft to turn back or be diverted.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said: "The first thing that went through my mind was, 'Oh my God'."

Mayor Giuliani later said he knew of no survivors of the crash.

Horrified witnesses told of the right-side engine of the plane appearing to blow up and the aircraft going into a nosedive. The plane went down close to a school which, fortunately, was closed as today was a public holiday in the US.

The plane was one of 35 Toulouse-built Airbus A300s in the American Airlines fleet. The airline had still been counting the cost of losing two aircraft in the September 11 terrorist attacks when today's disaster struck.

With 246 passengers and nine crew on board, the plane had taken off at around 2pm from Kennedy airport in New York - about an hour late.

Witness Eddie Niedes said he saw an engine on the wing blow up seconds before the plane plunged to the ground.

He went on: "It was very fast. I don't think the pilot had any choice but to go straight down. It was very, very frightening. I was watching the plane from my office all the way along and it blew up right in front of my eyes."

Beverly Browne, from Brooklyn, New York, said she saw white smoke coming from the plane before it crashed.

She continued: "The wings were going backwards and forwards like it was trying to balance itself. There was white smoke coming out of it. It just couldn't seem to stabilise itself. The next thing I knew it had crashed."

Susan Locke, who lives a few blocks away from the crash, said she saw it coming "straight down" in the middle of a residential housing area.

The flight had been due to arrive at Santo Domingo's Las Americas International Airport. Many in this poor Spanish-speaking nation had been waiting years for reunions with their loved ones.

"Not the child, please not the child," sobbed 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."

The National Transportation Safety Board said the plane's flight data recorder, or black box, had been recovered. All the information so far pointed to an air accident.

An American Airlines spokesman said tonight that the aircraft had had a maintenance check only the day before the crash. Its last major maintenance overhaul had been on December 9 1999, and the next was due in July 2002.

Mr Giuliani said the Rockaway area had been hard hit by the World Trade Centre attacks and added: "I passed a church where I have been for I think 10 funerals. I have been here probably 20 times for funerals and wakes so the idea that Rockaway could be the victims of this is terrible. We will do everything we can to help these people."

Wreckage from the jet, which appeared to be part of the engine, littered a street some distance from where the plane came down.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said it was too early to rule out terrorism but he said the US Government had received no credible threats prior to the crash.

He went on: "There was no unusual contact between the cockpit and the tower according to first reports. Our information this moment is that all communications were normal prior to the crash."

He said President Bush had expressed his sympathy to Mr Giuliani in a phone call shortly after the crash.


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