Investigators study wreckage

Investigators were last night studying the wreckage of a packed passenger jet to find out why it crashed into a New York neighbourhood with the feared loss of over 250 lives.

The American Airlines air bus A300 nose-dived into the borough of Queens less than 10 miles from John F Kennedy airport.

Four homes in the Rockaway Beach area were obliterated and several others were set ablaze. There were no known survivors on the plane, which was carrying 255 people.

Last night, investigators were examining the flight’s black boxes, as well as debris from the plane which scattered across the sleety suburban neighbourhood. The crash happened at 2.15pm Irish time, just 15 miles from the scene of devastation caused by the September 11 suicide hijackings in Manhattan two months ago.

The US government said it was still not clear whether terrorism had caused the crash or not, but that no credible threat had been received before the plane - bound for the Dominican Republic - had taken off.

One of the General Electric engines fell from the 1988-built plane before it crashed.

American President George Bush said he was ‘‘heartbroken’’ by news of the disaster.

‘‘The New York people have suffered mightily, and they suffer again,’’ he said. ‘‘But there is no doubt in my mind that the New Yorkers are resilient and strong and courageous people and they will help their neighbours get over this.’’

New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani described the crash as ‘‘catastrophic’’, but said it could have been far worse.

He said because the jet nose-dived into a relatively small area rather than gliding down the number of casualties had been greatly reduced.

Some 161 bodies had been recovered, he said. There were no confirmations of any deaths from people in the neighbourhood where the plane crashed, but six adults were missing.

The plane was one of 35 Toulouse-built air bus A300s in the American Airlines’ fleet. The airline had still been counting the cost of losing two aircraft in the September 11 terrorist attacks when today’s disaster struck.

With 251 passengers and nine crew on board, the jet had taken off at around 2pm from Kennedy airport in New York - about an hour late.

Horrified witnesses told of the right-side engine of the plane appearing to blow up and the aircraft going into a nosedive. The plane went down close to a school which, fortunately, was closed as today was a public holiday in the US.

Witness Eddie Niedes said he saw an engine on the wing blow up seconds before the plane plunged to the ground.

He went on: ‘‘It was flying fine with no problems. It seemed to be on a normal flight path. Then the engine on the right side blew up and it went straight down into a nosedive. There were flames on the right-hand side.’’

Beverley Browne, from Brooklyn, New York, said she saw white smoke coming from the jet before it crashed.

She continued: ‘‘The wings were going backwards and forwards like it was trying to balance itself. The next thing I knew it had crashed.’’

Mary Blakey, of the National Transportation Safety Board, said: ‘‘All the information we have currently is that this is an accident but we are co-ordinating with the FBI.

She added: ‘‘We have reports that there were a number of pieces of wreckage including engine parts, that were scattered some distance from the actual crashed plane but we do not have any specific information on the engines.’’

An American Airlines’ spokesman said that the aircraft had had a maintenance check only the day before the crash. Its last major maintenance overall had been on December 9, 1999 and the next was due in July 2002.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said it was too early to rule out terrorism. But he said the US government had received no credible threats prior to the crash.

‘‘There was no unusual contact between the cockpit and the tower according to first reports,’’ he said.

Mr Giuliani said the Rockaway area had been hit hard by the World Trade Centre attacks. He added: ‘‘I have been here probably 20 times for funerals and wakes so the idea that Rockaway could be the victim of this is terrible.’’

He added: ‘‘We should remain absolutely calm, we are just being tested one more time. We will pass this too.’’

He also paid tribute to the bravery and professionalism of the fire fighters and police department who helped bring the blazes quickly under control.

Donald Carty, chairman of American Airlines, said he had ‘‘absolutely no indications’’ about what caused the crash.

‘‘The news comes at a difficult time for the nation, a difficult time for the airline industry and a very difficult time for American Airlines.

‘‘Given the changed world that we live in today it will be as important as it ever has been to quickly determine the cause of the accident.’’