US: A small airliner carrying at least 50 people crashed and burst into flames yesterday, shortly after taking off from Lexington's Blue Grass Airport, killing all but one on board, officials said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash of Comair flight 5191, bound for Atlanta. Visibility was good and it was not raining at the time, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman said.
There was no indication that terrorism was involved, a US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official said.
One man survived and was in critical condition, a University of Kentucky Hospital spokesman said. It was not immediately known if the survivor was a passenger or a crew member.
The plane was carrying 47 passengers and a three-person crew, but may also have been carrying an off-duty crew member.
Local coroner Gary Ginn said the fire burned "very hot" and that all bodies had been removed.
A FAA official said the plane crashed in a farm field in rugged terrain and the fuselage was largely intact. "We cannot speculate on the cause of the accident," Comair president Don Bornhorst told reporters. "We will support the investigation."
The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the crash investigation.
"We don't have any information that it's security-related," said TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis. "I don't have any information that it's anything other than a mechanical issue." Local media said the plane, a Bombardier Canadair CRJ-100 jet that seats 52 passengers, may have departed from a runway that was too short.
But Mr Bornhorst said that was strictly "rumour or speculation that would not be good for any of us to go down right now".
The plane that crashed was acquired new in January 2001 by Comair, a regional carrier operated by Delta Air Lines Inc, and had a clean maintenance record, said Mr Bornhorst. It had performed 12,048 take-off and landing "cycles", he said, adding the crew was well-rested and weather did not appear a factor.
The plane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were both recovered, according to media reports.
There have been relatively few high-casualty air crashes in the US in the past five years. In November 2001, an American Airlines Airbus A300 crashed in Queens, New York, after take-off from New York's JFK airport, killing 265 people.