Just listening to Century and they said there had been a major air crash in Queen's area of New York. However, there's no mention of it on the BBC site or anywhere else. I really hope they were mistaken.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Answers

It is on sky news site too ! Oh shit

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - An American Airlines Boeing 767 passenger jet crashed into New York on Monday, CNN reported, showing a cloud of black smoke billowing from the crash site in the borough of Queens.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Word now is that it was an Airbus 330 on it's way to the Dominican Republic. AA flt 587. Likely a crash on take-off, but terrorism is not out of the question.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

All NYC airports and tunnels have been closed as a precaution

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Not sure if any bbsers know folks in the area, but the crash occured over Rockaway Beach at Beach 129th and Newport Ave. A church was destroyed. Haven't gotten many more details yet. Part of this is coming from a friend who has relatives in the area. Over 200 people were on the plane. No reports yet of casualties on the ground. The smoke has gone from black to white so they're getting the fire under control.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Reports say the aircraft may have been carrying up to 246 passengers when it plunged into homes in Queens.

The jet, thought to be flight 587, was heading to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

There are reports the plane hit a number of homes near Rockaway beach. One eyewitness said pieces of the plane were falling off mid- air.

"I saw a large piece hit a hood of a car," one women told Fox News.

"It seem to fold and fall onto a residential area," adding that she initially thought the plane was a Concorde.

F16 fighter jets are now in the skies of New York - the incident comes two months after the US terrorist attacks on the US.

Security chiefs said there was no evidence of terrorist activity but all airports in New York have now been closed as a precautionary measure. Bridges and tunnels have been closed The city has also been put on the highest state of alert.

A huge plume of smoke is rising above the New York skyline as the wreckage burns.

The Dow Jones dropped 200 points as news of the crash reached the markets.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Eyewitness accounts are saying that one of the engines fell off the airplane in midair. Although the media are saying that a surface to air missile would seek out the heat of the engine.... Seems like it was equipment failure of course everyone is screaming terrorisim, expect the FAA to close all airports.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

CNN are reporting that (part of) an engine crashed into the garden of a house. No comment on how it became detached from the plane - accident, explosion or shot. Hopefully (if there can be much positive to come out of this), it was an accident. But even if it is, with the state of folks' minds right now, this will be yet another devastating blow to the folks of NYC and America in general.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Quite a few buildings burning as well.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

shit!

A missile would be unlikely to just remove an engine given that they are bolted a few centimetres from the fuel.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

FBI are saying there was an explosion before the crash http://www.ananova.com

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

brilliant interview with an aviation guy who said 'these planes are designed so the engine falls off', so that's okay then

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

If this does turn out to be sabotage, somebody should be strung up by the balls, I mean it's barely two months since the WTC thing.

There can be no excuse whatever for security to have tailed off to the extent that a bomb could be put in place.

Boggles my mind, and the cynic in me has to conclude that too many suits were being inconvenienced by even barely adequate security checks, and the airline big wigs were whingeing about the revenue they're losing.

Hope I'm way, way off with that extrapolation.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Not too far off, PB. Congress is still fighting over who should run security. Whether security personnel should be federal employees or private firms overseen by the Fed. In the meantime a security firm working at something like 40% of the nation's airports and with a string of violations longer than your arm lets some guy through with 7 knives, a can of mace and a stun gun. Though the airlines are b*tching about proposals to force baggage matching on all domestic flights. They're using the arguments about delays and cost (appx 70 CENTS per passenger). Ridiculous. Anyone who thinks 70 CENTS and an extra 15-20min of their time is worth more than people's lives, shouldn't be getting on a plane...or running an airline.

It's a sad world when people are hoping today's crash is an accident (as looks to be the case) and not another act of terrorism. :-(

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Have a heart Ciara, I don't want to be even remotely right. :-((

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001