NEW YORK (REUTERS) — An American Airlines Airbus crashed into a New York neighborhood minutes after takeoff on Monday, killing up to 269 people in an inferno that sparked fears — apparently unfounded — of a fresh attack on the city.
Federal officials said evidence so far indicated the crash near John F. Kennedy airport, in which all 260 people on the plane and up to nine on the ground were believed killed, was an accident.
But city and state authorities, on a hair trigger following the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, hastily sealed off the city’s airports, bridges and tunnels. Nearly all reopened a few hours later as security concerns eased, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said.
Flames and smoke billowed from the Rockaway district of the borough of Queens where Flight 587, an Airbus A300 bound for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, crashed three minutes after taking off at 9:14 a.m.
Federal officials said the plane’s flight data recorder was recovered, while unconfirmed reports said the cockpit voice data recorder also had been found.
“Houses are destroyed. There are pieces of plane all over the place. There’s a series of lines of body bags and they’re just carrying the bodies out,” said fire department chaplain Father John Delendick. “I just stood there and prayed.”
Clothes, broken suitcases and other debris from the plane hung from burning trees in the working-class neighborhood.
“There’s a lot of bodies,” said an unidentified Emergency Medical Services technician. “A lot of the bodies were intact. It’s hard to tell whether they were all from the plane or from the houses that the plane hit.”
Residents of the area, home to several firefighters killed in the World Trade Center collapse, tearfully covered their faces to protect themselves from the thick smoke.
Hospital officials said they treated about 60 people injured on the ground, including firefighters and police officers with smoke inhalation.
Giuliani expects no survivors
“I don’t believe there are any survivors at this point,” Giuliani said.
Joseph Dunne, first deputy Police Commissioner, said 265 bodies had been recovered, but none had been identified. He also said 181 body parts had been found.
Police were asking family members for DNA samples to help in the identification process.
Six people, and possibly nine, were missing on the ground, Dunne said.
The plane split into several parts, hitting a dozen houses just a couple of blocks from Rockaway Beach on the Atlantic Ocean, the mayor said.
Six houses were destroyed and another six seriously damaged, their walls or roofs destroyed, witnesses said.
A large chunk of the engine landed at a gas station and another engine piece fell four blocks away. Other parts of the plane fell into nearby Jamaica Bay, where a vertical stabilizer from the plane’s tail section was recovered, the mayor said.
At least 150 Dominicans were believed to be on the plane, and relatives and friends waiting at Santo Domingo’s airport cried out in grief as they heard of the crash.
“All my family were coming on this flight. They were coming to be with me for Christmas,” cried one woman. “My God, how terrible. Why, why?”
The National Transportation Safety Board, which was heading the investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the FAA all said there was no immediate indication of the cause but said it did not appear to be a crime.
“All information we have currently is that this is an accident,” said NTSB Chairwoman Marion Blakey.
The crash came just two months and a day after two hijacked passenger planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, killing some 4,300 people.
Donald Carty, chief executive of American Airlines, said the company had “absolutely no indication” what caused the crash. He said the plane was 17 or 18 years old, calling it “a mid-life airplane.”
Stocks tumble on news
Stocks and the dollar fell on news of the crash but recovered as the NTSB pointed to an accident.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended unofficially off 55 points, about 0.60 percent, at 9,553, while AMR closed down $1.64, or 9 percent, at $16.49 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Two American flights were among the four hijacked planes that crashed on Sept. 11. Two planes struck the Trade Center, a third hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania.
Giuliani said his first thought when he learned of the crash was, “Oh, my God.”
“We are just being tested one more time, and we are going to pass this test too,” he said.
He noted there had been “no unusual communications” between the airport tower and the jet. The plane was delayed at takeoff, but he said the delay was routine.
Giuliani said the city boosted its already high state of security “because you always have to assume the worst.”
“As soon as we were able to get all the facts, we de-escalated,” he said. “The city is open.”
Gov. George Pataki said earlier reports that the pilot dumped fuel into the bay before the crash, which might have indicated he believed there was mechanical failure on the plane, were “conflicting” and “inconclusive.”
The plane was carrying 251 passengers, including five children seated on passengers’ laps, and nine crew members, according to American Airlines.
Witnesses said the plane split apart and hit the ground nose-first. Most did not hear an explosion before the plane crashed, but there were conflicting reports, the mayor said.
Retired firefighter Tom Lynch said he watched the plane explode as he looked out his window.
Witness says plane exploded
“It definitely exploded in the sky,” he said. “It wasn’t that loud …. I saw a whoof, a flame, and looked like a wing falling off the airplane and it nose-dived right down.”
Hundreds of firefighters swarmed through the area’s streets and yards, looking for victims and parts of the plane.
All three major airports — Kennedy, Newark International Airport and La Guardia — shut down for several hours. By early afternoon, La Guardia and Newark reopened, while Kennedy allowed only arrivals all afternoon and added departures at 6:30 p.m.
Shocked and grieving, New York’s Dominican community held a candlelight vigil to mourn the dead.
“These people that we lost today will not be forgotten,” mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg told a crowd gathered in Washington Heights, home to thousands of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. “All eight million people who live in New York City grieve with the relatives.”
In Washington, President Bush said, “The New York people have suffered mightily. They suffer again. But there’s no doubt in my mind that New Yorkers are resilient and strong and courageous people and will help their neighbors overcome this recent incident that took place.”
-With additional reporting by Nicole Volpe and Jeanne King
