A city already reeling from devastation that came from the skies was shaken again as American Airlines Flight 587, carrying 260 people, crashed into the borough of Queens, just three minutes after take-off from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York yesterday morning. All on board and a number of people on the ground died.
The plane was en route to Santa Domingo and some 90 per cent of the passengers were reported to be Dominican Republic citizens.
The Mayor of New York, Mr Rudolph Giuliani, described the crash as "catastrophic" but acknowledged that the number of casualties could have been much higher since the American Airlines jet came down in a residential area. "It could have been far worse. Even the way in which it came down in one small defined area, as opposed to hitting a number of homes, was lucky."
He said that 225 bodies had been recovered. Six, possibly eight, people from the neighbourhood where the plane crashed were missing.
Because of initial fears that the crash might be terrorist-related, tunnels and bridges in the city were closed. Share prices on Wall Street immediately fell sharply, but recovered when it became clear there was no terrorist involvement.
The European-made Airbus A300 lifted off at 9.14 a.m., only to sputter and dip within minutes. An eyewitness who was fishing off a pier in Rockaway Bay said the plane seemed to be in trouble.
"The plane was going up and down like it was in an air pocket," said the man. "Then we saw sparks. Pieces of the plane started falling and we just ran for shelter."
In Washington, President Bush met advisers, seeking details of the crash. White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said there were no "unusual communications" from the cockpit.
A senior administration official said that no threats against airplanes had been received.
Another eyewitness, Mr 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."
The plane crashed into a quiet, densely populated residential neighbourhood in Queens, some 15 miles from Manhattan, setting off four separate fires. 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.
Consistent with eyewitness reports that an engine separated from the plane before the crash, a plane engine was found intact in a parking lot at a nearby Texaco petrol station. Part of a wing appeared to be in the water in Jamaica Bay, just offshore. The pilot may also have dumped fuel into the bay just before crashing.
Federal aviation officials are treating the crash as an accident and say there is no evidence of terrorism. An aviation official, speaking to The Irish Times on the condition of anonymity, said that a United Airlines crew that was in flight at the same time overheard, via radio, the pilot from American Airlines flight 587 report a "mechanical" problem.
In addition, the National Transportation Agency was designated as the investigative agency, signalling that officials do not believe a criminal act was involved. The NTSB, which sent 60 investigators to the scene, said investigators recovered the Airbus flight data recorder, one of the jetliner's two "black boxes". Early today two US television stations reported that the cockpit voice recorder had also been recovered.
New York City officials immediately closed down all bridges and tunnels in and out of the city as a precautionary measure as officials sought to determine whether the crash was an accident or another act of terrorism.
A US Airways jet en route from Pittsburgh to Washington made an emergency landing yesterday after a passenger attempted to force his way into the cockpit, aviation authorities said. Federal air marshals arrested the man. He was said to be "under the influence of a substance".