Replies

American Airlines passenger jet crashes after takeoff in New York; more than 250 feared dead
DIEGO IBARGUEN, Associated Press Writer
Monday, November 12, 2001
©2001 Associated Press

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2001/11/12/national1623EST0727.DTL

(11-12) 14:31 PST NEW YORK (AP) -- A jetliner en route to the Dominican Republic broke apart minutes after takeoff and crashed in a waterfront neighborhood Monday, engulfing homes in flames and sowing initial fears of a new terrorist atrocity. All 255 people aboard were killed, and at least six others were reported missing on the ground.

"It's looking like it's not a terrorist attack," said a senior Bush administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity. If there was an explosion on the plane -- and many bystanders heard one -- it was probably caused by a catastrophic mechanical failure, investigators said.

American Airlines Flight 587, a European-made Airbus A300, left Kennedy Airport at 9:14 a.m., 74 minutes late, lifting off into a clear blue sky. It nose-dived three minutes later into the Rockaway Beach section of Queens -- a middle-class neighborhood, 15 miles from Manhattan, that had lost scores of its people, firefighters and financial workers among them, in the World Trade Center catastrophe just two months ago.

"I just thought, `Oh, no, not again,"' said Milena Owens, who was putting up Thanksgiving decorations when she heard an explosion.

Furious orange flames towered above the treetops, and a plume of thick, black smoke could be seen miles away.

Authorities later found one of the two black boxes from the 13-year-old jet and said it would be examined for clues.

Saud Aziz, 38, said he was raking leaves in front of his home when he looked up, spotted the plane and saw a large chunk of a wing fall off. At that point, he said, the aircraft went into a spiraling dive and set the neighborhood on fire.

"We could feel the heat. The flames were intense," he said. "Even though it was burning, it was weird, because it was very quiet."

Other witnesses reported hearing an explosion and seeing an engine and other debris falling off the twin-engine jet as it came down.

An engine was found intact in a parking lot at a Texaco station, where it had missed the gas pumps by no more than 6 feet; neighbors ran to the scene with garden hoses to put out the fire. Part of a wing appeared to be in Jamaica Bay, just offshore, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said, and the plane's tail was pulled from the water.

"I don't believe there are any survivors at this point," Giuliani said. As of late afternoon, 240 bodies had been recovered, he said. Klieg lights -- the kind of lights used at ground zero at the Trade Center -- were brought in so recovery workers could work into the night.

At least six and perhaps as many as eight people, all adults, were reported missing on the ground, the mayor said. Four houses were destroyed, four were seriously damaged, and as many as a dozen others sustained lesser damage, Giuliani said.

"Anyone who was in those four houses that were directly hit by that fuselage, where that severe fire was, I don't think they're going to be alive," said Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen. Authorities were not certain that anyone was in those buildings.

Roberto Valentin, a Dominican ambassador at large, spoke through tears when he said he believed 90 percent of the passengers were Dominican. New York City has 455,000 Dominicans.

Relatives of passengers crowded Santo Domingo's airport, sobbing and grasping each other after hearing about the crash.

"Oh my God!" said Miriam Fajardo, crying after being told that her sister and three nephews were aboard. "I hadn't seen them in eight years. Now they're gone."

The rectory of St. Francis de Sales, one block from the crash site, was used as an emergency command center. Its pastor, Monsignor Martin Geraghty, was called away to bless bodies.

Firefighter Joe O'Brien accompanied the priest. The monsignor blessed about 20 bodies, which were being laid out on the street right in front of the crash site, O'Brien said.

"Right now they're just recovering bodies. The FBI is looking for evidence," he said. "And the priests are down there consoling firemen."

Thirty-five people were treated for injuries at the hospital -- mostly rescue workers, firefighters and police. All were hurt not in the crash but in the aftermath, with most of them suffering smoke inhalation.

The city, which was already on high alert because of the Trade Center catastrophe in lower Manhattan, reacted immediately. Fighter jets patrolled the skies; bridges, tunnels and all three major airports were closed for a time; the Empire State Building was evacuated.

"People should remain calm," Giuliani said. "We're just being tested one more time, and we're going to pass this test, too."

In Washington, President Bush met with advisers, seeking details of the crash. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said intelligence agencies, the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration were reviewing recent intelligence for signs that terrorism was involved.

But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there were no "unusual communications" from the cockpit. And a senior administration official said that no threats against airplanes had been received.

Gov. George Pataki said the pilot dumped fuel in Jamaica Bay before the plane went down -- indicating the crew knew the jet was in trouble.

The National Transportation Safety Board was designated the lead agency in the investigation, signaling that authorities have no information other than that a mechanical malfunction -- and not a terrorist attack -- brought down the plane.

A law enforcement source at the scene told The Associated Press that the likelihood of a mechanical problem stemmed from the fact that flames were seen shooting out of the left engine and that witnesses reported the plane had difficulty climbing and was banking to the left.

Jet engines have been known to break up catastrophically, throwing shrapnel into a plane. In 1989, for example, United Airlines DC-10 crashed in Sioux City, Iowa, killing 112, after the metal hub that holds the engine's fan blades shattered and ruptured the jet's hydraulic lines.

Jennifer Rivara said she was looking out a window from her home about five blocks from Monday's crash. "I saw pieces falling out of the sky," she said. "And then I looked over to my left and I saw this huge fireball, and the next thing I know, I hear this big rumbling sound. I ran to the door and all I saw was big black smoke."

The plane was lying on top of about 12 homes, said Ed Williams, community liaison for Rep. Gregory Meeks.

Giuliani said his first thought upon hearing about the crash was "`Oh, my God.' I just passed the church in which I've been to, I think, 10 funerals here. Rockaway was particularly hard hit" in the Trade Center disaster, he said.

The mayor went to an airport hotel where hundreds of family members of those on board the plane had assembled; he led them in a moment of silent prayer.

"This is a horrible, horrible day," the governor told them.

The Trade Center was destroyed by two Boeing 767s hijacked out of Boston's Logan Airport. One of the planes was operated by American, the other by United.

Jackie Weiss, 50, a secretary at Rockaway High School, said: "I'm really devastated. My own son was telling me, when I was upset by the World Trade Center, `But you didn't lose any family members.' But seeing something like this ... I feel the world is coming to an end."

As a former Jet Engine Mechanic I can speak to some aspects of this air crash in New York! In the 1960's I was stationed @ the Old Plattsburgh AFB in upstate New York for two years. Working at the test cell facility and doing flightline maintenance operations; there were some scary situations doing run up and performance and acceptance on Turbojet Engine Equipment.

On the concrete pad where we worked there were several compressor and turbine blades impaled into the concrete underneath the stand where the engine was restrained. We did a variety of Water injection and viberation tests to prove out the newly rebuilt spare engines.

The turbine section of an axial flow jet engine I worked on had the individual blades attached to the hub by a system called fir tree serations and were locked into position by a special heat treated rivet. Once the rear of the engine was assembled the turbine rotor could be inspected for cracks with a system called dye penetrant and during assembly a system called zyglow was used to get additional help in locating cracks or other distortions.

There is a flightline instrument we also used to inspect the internal componets called the Borescope. This had a magnyfying lens with a bright light that could be positioned in front of the turbine section not able to be seen from the rear of the engine.

Another situation we dealt with on a regular basis was the problem of Bird Strikes. The Airframes and the Engines are particularly at risk. The leading edges of the airplanes were visited regularly by the sheet metal shop to replace the damaged skin of the Airframe. On at lease two occasions I remember a B-52 came in with one or two engines completely "Shelled Out" meaning you could look straight through the engine. The wing strut usually was intact but required massive re-fitting and of course replacement of the engines involved. That area of New York is part of the wildlife flyway and Canada Geese were most often the culprit.

As a mechanic the first thing you were taught is to stay out in front of a engine when its running. You never want to remain in the "Plane Of Rotation" of the compressor or the turbine any longer than you have to be there, for obvious reasons. If a engine were to shell out for any reason it would turn you into hamburger! When a mechanic like myself was required to "Trim Or Adjust The Power Settings" we had to get right next to the engine fuel control to do this proceedure especially on the flight line during launch operations. At the test cell at least you could use the servo actuated remote trimming device to keep you at a safe distance and position. The dynamics of a piece of high speed turbo machinery is very unforgiving. The noise,heat and other variables made this a nervy job to say the least. You had to be constantly alert to avoid disaster but when you are young and well trained you don't think about all the pitfalls otherwise the job would never get done!

This crash is still being investigated and I have no idea if it was a catastrophic failure of the equipment but this I do know. The close tolerances this kind of machinery operates at has to be treated as zero tolerance. Every stage of its operation must be preceeded by cleanliess and attention down to the most minute detail. If this was not the case then bad things happen very quickly. This is why when I was in the service I used to lay awake at night going over my proceedures to make sure I safety wired that tubing nut and bolts right; because it was my life on the line as well as others and I signed off the Forms before we went flying off into the wild blue yonder!