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The crash of an American Airlines plane into a Queens neighbourhood this morning has paralysed an already anxious New York City.
Hundreds of firefighters and rescue workers convened on the residential neighborhood where the aircraft went down. At least 15 homes were affected and six destroyed. A plume of thick, black smoke could be seen miles away; flames billowed high above the treetops.
All airports were closed and all bridges and tunnels in and out of New York were temporarily shut down. Flames and thick white smoke engulfed the area as water hoses snaked through the streets. As it was a bank holiday, many families were at home and children were home from school.
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New York firefighters amidst the smoke in the aftermath of the Queens plane crash. Photograph: Reuters
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The smell of jet fuel burned peoples' eyes. One eyewitness said it seemed the pilot tried to bank the plane away from the houses into a nearby marshland, but was apparently unable to. Instead, the engine which fell off before the crash landed some four miles away from the rest of the plane. The debris field, as they call it, stretched for miles.
If there was an irony or a horror to the place where the plane went down, it was that this neighborhood was one of the worst affected by the events of September 11th. The neighbourhood on 129th Street and Newport Avenue is home to many firefighters and policeman, including many Irish Americans and it is an area deeply affected by deaths from September 11th.
In fact, a recent poll of the Catholic church parishes found that more children in the local parish had lost parents in the World Trade Center incident than in any other parish in the city.
"I heard the explosion and I looked out the window and saw the flames and the smoke," said Milena Owens, who lives two blocks from the crash site and was putting Thanksgiving decorations on her window. "And I just thought, 'Oh no, not again.'"
Another eyewitness, Tom Rodberg, was sitting in the passenger lounge at the airport waiting to board a plane to Los Angeles. He looked out the window and saw the plane head straight down.
"There was a ball of flame and a white puff of smoke on the left side," said Mr. Rodberg. "Then fragments started falling." Mayor Rudolph Giuliani canceled his morning events and headed to the scene.
"People should remain calm. We're just being tested one more time and we're going to pass this test, too. Now we should focus all our efforts on finding survivors," Mr Giuliani said.
"The first thing that went through my mind is, 'Oh, my God.' I just passed the church in which I've been to, I think, 10 funerals here. Rockaway was particularly hard hit. The disproportionate number of the people we lost not just the police and fire, but even the workers at the World Trade Center were from Rockaway and Staten Island."