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Jet 'exploded into pieces' (Witnesses "Saw Explosion On One Side of Plane Before Crash")
BBC & CNN ^ | November 12, 2001 | BBC & CNN News Staffs

Posted on 11/12/2001 9:06:00 AM PST by t-shirt

Jet 'exploded into pieces'

Monday, 12 November, 2001

BBC Residents watched as firefighters battled the blaze

Eyewitnesses have spoken of their horror at seeing an Airbus A300 crash into a residential area of New York. Witnesses reported seeing a fire or explosion on one side of the aircraft as an engine fell off.

The plane then crashed into the Rockaway area of Queens.

I saw the flames and the smoke and I just thought, 'Oh no, not again'

Milena Owens, who lives yards from the crash site, said she was putting up Thanksgiving decorations on her window when she saw the plane fly far too low.

"I heard the explosion and I looked out the window and saw the flames and the smoke and I just thought, 'Oh no, not again'."

"The whole house shook," said Gus Cholakis, who lives 100 yards from the spot where some of the wreckage came to rest.

Resident's prayers

"I looked out the window, the first thing I saw was a huge fireball right outside."

Mr Cholakis, 38, said he had known 13 of those lost when the World Trade Center collapsed.

This neighbourhood has been through enough

Gus Cholakis

He admitted he was praying he had not lost more friends, adding: "This neighbourhood has been through enough."

John Maroney, 47, said the engine plummeted onto a Texaco petrol station near his house, and pieces of plane were only a few hundred yards away.

"That's probably what shook us up from our beds. The whole house jumped.

'Climbing position'

"We were all out there with fire extinguishers and hoses, but we couldn't do much."

Ethan Moses said he had seen the plane climbing in the sky after take-off.

It was travelling to the left slightly and then it just nose dived straight down

Ethan Moses , "It was in a climbing position and when I looked up I saw fire on the left side of the engine," he told CNN.

The wing appeared to separate from the rest of the plane, which veered to the left and then plunged into a nose dive, he said.

"It was travelling to the left slightly and then it just nose dived straight down," Mr Moses said, adding that fire spread on the ground, moving from house to house within seconds.

Phyllis Paul said she heard the plane's engine drone louder as it descended.

Falling metal

"It was very, very loud. Because of what happened on 11 September, it gave me a chill," she told CNN.

"It was getting louder and louder and I looked out the window. I saw a piece of metal falling from the sky."

The wings were going backwards and forwards like it was trying to balance itself
Phyllis Paul

Beverly Browne, from Brooklyn, said she saw white smoke coming from the plane before it crashed.

"The wings were going backwards and forwards like it was trying to balance itself. There was white smoke coming out of it.

"It just couldn't seem to stabilise itself. The next thing I knew it had crashed."

? David Solero was driving over a bridge by Rockaway when he saw fire on the left hand side of the plane.

He told CNN: "We looked up and saw the fire coming from the left hand side - it could have been an explosion."

Plane 'veered'

Other witnesses told reporters that the fire or explosion was on the right hand side of the plane.

Mr Solero added: "It could have been the engine was on fire.

I was scared it was going to veer towards us and hit us - we stopped dead in our tracks

David Solero, "It flew right over us, started to veer to the left then it veered back right.

"I was scared it was going to veer towards us and hit us - we stopped dead in our tracks.

"We saw something fly off the plane."

One woman fled her home, fearing she could be killed.

Concorde-like sound

She told CNN: "It was a huge, loud sound. It seemed so loud that I was like ducking almost.

"I just heard - it sounded like Concorde flying too low and then it just hit.

Eyewitness
-- "It blew up into a huge fireball and I jumped out the second floor of my house." "It hit the house behind me and I think it exploded into pieces."

"I went over the deck in the front of my house because the back was so hot."

"We were just in shock and we had to evacuate two streets away. It was so horrible." "There is a lot of terror here. Everybody is in shock."

"I was very, very lucky."

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TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aaflight587; anthraxscarelist; flight587; talibanlist
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To: aruanan
An obvious conclusion is that there were explosions and fire seen from both sides of the plane.
--- aruanan

Yes, there could well have been explosions on both sides of the plane and each individual observing the ground could very likely not see both sides of the plane. But either way whether there was one or more explosions--we know there was atleast an explosion. But what is so outrageous is the government is completely denying that there was any explosion at all before the crash. And even more outrageous is the government is saying it doesn't even suspect the crash was anything other than an accident. Even though it happened in NY and nearly 2 months from the day of the last WTC attacks.

241 posted on 11/16/2001 1:16:56 PM PST by t-shirt
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To: t-shirt
One of the earliest eyewitness reports I heard, probably within an hour, was that the woman saw something fall from the "back of the plane" followed by fire and then it went down.
242 posted on 11/16/2001 1:18:26 PM PST by aruanan
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To: aruanan
The one woman who I saw on FOX who claimed she didn't see an explosion was not from the nearby neighborhood as were most of the other witnesses, she was from somewhere blocks away on 128th street and she was a government worker. What possessed, her while on the job (and what kind of govt' job did she have to be working on a holiday?), to walk or drive or take a taxi to the dangerous scene of the impact when there were fires going on and emergency crews everywhere and when she had no friends or family near the scene.
243 posted on 11/16/2001 1:18:40 PM PST by t-shirt
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To: Asmodeus
Did I hear that the maintenance log book was found intact at the crash site or was I dreaming? Why is the data recorder damaged but a "paper log book?" Ok?
244 posted on 11/16/2001 1:18:47 PM PST by clodkicker
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To: t-shirt
Witnesses said they saw an explosion on one side of the plane before the crash, but different accounts placed the explosion on different sides of the aircraft. Ethan Moses said he saw the aircraft burning from its left side, then the aircraft's left engine fell off.

That depends on whether the wits were ahead of or behind the aircraft, of course. It's more precise in crash investigations to describe such effects as occuring on the *port* or *starboard* side of the aircraft, with port being the left or *captain's side* as the command pilot sits in his seat on that side, the same as in most automobiles [though not most helicopters nor in railroad locomotives, normally operasted from their starboard side.

Canoes and bicycles leave less opportunities for descriptional errors, intentional or otherwise, by both investigators and witnesses.

-archy-/-

245 posted on 11/16/2001 1:19:06 PM PST by archy
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To: t-shirt
What possessed, her while on the job...

Government disinformation service working a local job?
246 posted on 11/16/2001 1:19:54 PM PST by aruanan
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