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Posted on 11/12/2001 11:30:52 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Monday November 12 2:24 PM ET
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By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) - White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said there were no unusual communications from the cockpit of an American Airlines plane that crashed Monday in New York. The head of the U.S. safety board said current information indicates the crash was an accident.
Fleischer said President Bush (news - web sites) was informed of the crash within minutes of its occurrence in a residential section of Queens, and that Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge hastened to the White House Situation Room to confer with other senior officials on a conference call.
At a White House briefing, Fleischer said the National Transportation Safety Board (news - web sites) had been named the lead investigative agency into the crash, in which an Airbus crashed shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Marion Blakey, chairwoman of the NTSB (news - web sites), said, ``All information we have currently is that this is an accident.''
The crash triggered moments of intense concern inside the administration, struggling to cope with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax outbreak that followed a few weeks later.
But initial information seemed to allay concern that the American Airlines crash was another bout of terrorism. Several administration officials, including some at the White House, said that based on preliminary information the incident did not appear to be a terrorist attack.
Blakey said the flight data recorder had been recovered and would be analyzed by federal safety experts. Fleischer said there had been no credible threats against airplanes in advance of the crash.
The White House spokesman declined to rule terrorism in or out as a possible cause of the crash but said he would not dispute the assessment of U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, who said there was no preliminary evidence of terrorism.
The airlines have taken a financial beating since the suicide hijackings of Sept. 11, and officials have worked to rebuild public confidence in the industry. ``The president continues to believe that people need to travel,'' said Fleischer.
An administration source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said preliminary reports led the FBI (news - web sites) to believe there was an explosion aboard the plane, and was investigating whether it was an accident, mechanical failure or an act of sabotage. Fleischer said he could not confirm the report.
``There have been, according to eyewitnesses, information that an engine was seen being detached from the plane and that it landed separately from the main body of the airplane,'' he said.
With the nation on high alert, a result of the Sept. 11 attacks, Fleischer said Bush was in the Situation Room, convening a national security meeting, when he was handed a note shortly before 9:30 a.m. that a plane had gone down.
Bush spoke with New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (news - web sites) and Gov. George Pataki and ``expressed to both of them his deepest sympathy for the people of New York to be enduring any other trauma,'' Fleischer said.
The spokesman stepped to the microphones in the White House briefing room less than three hours after the plane crashed with 255 passengers and crew members aboard. Several eyewitnesses reported hearing explosions aboard the plane, and a piece of an engine came to rest outside a gas station in the Queens section of New York.
``There were no unusual communications with the cockpit,'' Fleischer said. He said investigators had not yet found the ``black box'' that records important in-flight information.
He also said Bush had dispatched federal investigators and search-and-rescue personnel to the scene.
New York area airports were closed in the wake of the crash, and federal officials briefly considered a nationwide shutdown. But Fleischer said officials did not intend to do that, and indicated the New York airports wouldn't be closed for long.
Bush postponed a scheduled interview with Russian and American reporters so he could monitor the investigation into the crash of Flight 587, which had just taken off from John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to the Dominican Republic. He meets Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), opening three days of talks in Washington and Texas.
Intelligence agencies, the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) were reviewing all recent intelligence for any signs that terrorism was involved but an hour after the crash there was no evidence pointing to an attack, said a U.S. official speaking only on condition of anonymity.
``They are comparing information to see if it provides any insight into what transpired. At this point, there's no indication of a terrorist attack, but it certainly can't be ruled out in current environment,'' the official said.
Earlier Stories
Official: Crash May Not Be Terror (November 12)
Bush Seeks NY Plane Crash Details (November 12)
Bush Seeks Details on NY Plane Crash (November 12)
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer briefs reporters, Monday, Nov. 12, 2001, after an American Airlines jetliner, on its way to the Dominican Republic with 255 people aboard when it crashed moments after takeoff in New York City. Bush administration officials said the FBI believed there was an explosion aboard the plane, and was investigating whether it was the result of a mechanical failure or sabotage. (AP Photo/Doug Mills)
An FBI agent (L) holds one of the battered and dented "black box" flight recorders from American Airlines flight 587 in his lap as he removes it from the scene of the crash in a New York City police car November 12, 2001 in Queens, New York. An American Airlines Airbus A-300 passenger jet crashed while taking off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. REUTERS/Jim Bourg
One of the battered and dented 'black box' flight recorders from American Airlines flight 587 lies on the ground beside a New York City police car as it is taken from the scene of the crash by an FBI agent November 12, 2001 in Queens, New York. Investigators quickly recovered the flight data recorder from the doomed jetliner and are transporting it to Washington for analysis. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)
"After a careful review of all the evidence, we have concluded that a squirrel must have stashed acorns in the easily-accessible wing-fuel cell. The vibration of takeoff caused the acorns to grind against one another, starting a fire, just like Indians rubbing sticks together. This caused an explosion, which caused the crash..."
Actually, there's tons of preliminary evidence that it was a bomb and absolutely no preliminary evidence that it was an accident.
These people had better not dare to start to cover this up.
Scads of people saw and explosion and the engine and debris fall off, there is video footage of the engine lying on the ground intact away from the crash site.
The strange thing is that the Administration, at least, is saying they have no evidence one way or the other while the usual suspects say all the usual preposterous things.
Must be an accident.
John: Ken, you there?
Ken, yes yes I am.
John: Can you tell us what you saw Ken?
Ken: Alright, I was out on the boat about a hundred twentieth a hundred nineteenth st when un we stopped the boat cause we have an engine..yah know the engine was making weird sounds, so we stopped the boat and we were back by the engine and I heard a popping sound...not like a a a I cant even say it was an explosion, it was more like a pop and then like a whishing sound and then part of the wing came off.
John:Where was the plane at that moment?
Ken: Right over the bay. Right over the bay
John So is it almost right above you?
Ken: Yes, kinda to the north of us, cause we where more to the east channel drive at that time, on that side of Jamaica Bay and um the pieces that came off the wing...flew into the um tail and tore the tail off and as soon as that happened the plane went belly up towards us and towards the east and it just dove straight down, like the uhh the belly of the plane actually turned toward the south and it went straight down into the ground.
John: So you saw some big pieces of this plane come off...
Ken:We was the first ones on the scene and then the police boat came and we helped them pick up parts of the boat..uh..parts a the plane. We actually took up the blue A off of the tail we put that in the boat. Ummm the picture of the....another piece of the whole top of the tail with the flag on it was laying in shallow water. We took up allot of pieces of the boat...the plane we put it on the boat and took them in to the police boat an helped load em onto the police boat but a a the engine
Rosannabreaks in: Well it sounds like you have some crucial information Ken...
His voice rising Ken says: See the engine...everybody keeps saying the engine fell off...if it fell off it fell off on the way down....
John:U Huh
Ken: That plane as soon as its tail came off it just bellied up and went straight down, so yah know people saying yah know the engine came off, but that came off after the fact. Now as far as explosion, something was happening over the bay, something made the wing shatter and took of the tail. and uh the way I seen it , it still looked like it had its engines on as it was going down.
John: Have you spoken to anyone there uh Ken have you talked to any members of the..
Ken Yeh a yeh police I gave the police a guy in a police boat my name and all that and when I was helping em with ya know the parts of the plane
Woman Ken you sound very shacking up , I'm sure this has..
Ken: I'm still shacking, its a its just a terrible sight. Ya know its something ya see on a movie Ya know how the plane..ya just just knew it..that it wouldn't, as it was going down I was saying hit the ocean hit the ocean thinking ya know maybe it cleared, its only 4 blocks wide but the plane just turned over and came straight down. It was..its a sight to see..it was ya know stunned me
Woman Were you able to keep your composure and think clearly at that point?
Ken: Yes, actually actually the things was starting to fly down toward the boat so we backed up a little bit toward the the trestles the A train trestle and then we came back to see if they was any...ah cause at one time I thought I could see a seat but I wasn't even sure, Nothing heavy came down, everything floated down
Woman: Do you think you got everything that was in the water?
Ken Mostly everything that was floating yah. Cause a the police boat came like the within 5 minutes..3 minutes maybe but that plane was gone in 6 seconds, when I heard the popping sound and seen the flames seen the uh wing hit the back tail an that came off it couldn't a been more than 3 seconds for it was down
John: So your saying the wing came off and hit the tail?
Ken: Parts yes...the whole section of the tail was what we recovered. The A the little flag on the top of the tail section that whole section, like the 30 foot top of that was stuck in the sand...in the water about 5 feet of water but there was other pieces floating around..as a matter of fact I took the blue A and we pulled that part on the boat and brought it over to the police boat. They was asking for our help then allot of boats came by allot of police boats
John:Nick your sitting hearing what Ken is saying that if any any questions for him?
Nick Well um it sounds like Ken is your describing is a again that something exploded uh to cause these pieces of the wing to come out. Is that what you sug..
Ken: Exactly something happened to that wing that sent pieces of it back to the tail.
John was it the left wing or the right wing Ken do ya know?
Ken ahh see now like my friend..well.. a it bellied up to me and a when it bellied up to the east it a looked like the right wing cause the left wing still looked intact to me. It looked like the right wing had come off..or part of it
John: well that would fit with what the
(over talk..engine..saying..?)Nick: Unnn but again Ken Kinda saying the engine fell off after the fact but still potentially the engine exploding could could cause pieces of the engine to fly I mean what may have happened was a a series of events where pieces if the engine actually flew back and struck the tail or even that pieces of the engine and the wing at the same time so a but a Kens observations of the tail is a very interesting clue
John Do you live around there Ken?
Ken Yes, I live in Hamilton beach right off Jamaica Bay and a thats the whole thing..That plane would have went over Rockaway cause it was still like level until the tail came off and then it just bellied up and spun around and came straight down uh otherwise it would..that tail..as soon as it shattered thats when the plane lost everything
Nick: Now Ken did you see actual flames coming out of an engine that was..?
Ken: There was flames on the belly of the plane..I don't know weather it was the engine or ya know, but the plane bellied up towards us as it was going down and flames in the a..in that vicinity of the engines or whatever like underneath the plane
Well Ken we a thank you for your time
Ken: No Problem
I, for one, just can't take any more of this "life must go on, go to the mall, buy stuff, no problems here that "we can't handle" spinshit.
It started with the Clinton Administration, but now, the guy who I thought would bring truth, justice, and the American Way back to our government seems to be more afraid of the market tanking, people being afriad to fly, and admitting what a mess has been made, is now following the same track and doing the same yap-yap as der Bubba.
I am really in a bad mood today. I have been listening to Fox all day, and am on the verge of not trusting our government, and Fox news for going with the "flow".
How can they expect us to be so stupid as to buy this whistling in the dark, and what are they going to do when no-one with a half-a-brain believes them any more!
Let's all call it an accident. It's plausible isn't it? It will infuriate Ben Laden if he is responsible. If another "accident" occurs next week, then the least of our worries will be looking foolish.
So you want them to say "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! STAY IN YOUR HOMES AND DON'T COME OUT!" ????
I went to a mall and bought stuff Saturday, and then, I must confess, I went to a party. What a stupid sheeple am I! I wish I had the courage to cower in my shack and live off the MREs I stashed for Y2K and admire the gold bars I've stuffed in a pit under my cot.
That sentence could also be technically truthful reading like this:"All information we have currently is that this is the result of a terrorist bomb."
Seems to be an awful lot of "catastrophic mechanical failure(s)" going on around here...
Somebody in the White House had better stop this ridiculousness quickly, otherwise the percentage of Americans who still trust the Government will be reduced to zero.
How does it help the airline industry if people are led to believe that, in addition to possible terrorist attack, the flying public should also be prepared for engines falling off for no particular reason?
Actually, you're letting your shotgun mouth get ahead of your BB gun butt.
The latest is that the pilot was dumping fuel seconds after take-off.
Pilots dump fuel when they believe they can return to an airport.
Not likely that this was terrorism. More likely that it was catastrophic engine failure.
Yes, keeping the economy going *is* important. But more important than that is the government being level with the people it serves. If there are terrorists attacks coming, and they know about them, let us know in as much detail as possible and not just vague general warnings. If there is a strange incident like today, don't immediatly go into the "not terrorist" mode 2 hours after the fact, like they did with the anthrax breakout a month ago, only to be proven to be fools.
I and others here are adults and as such, expect our employees to treat us as such. Anything else is insulting and presumptuous on their part.
That's an engine shroud; the engine is elsewhere.
The shroud appears to have been sheared, much as it would be if turbine blades cut through it when in catastrophic engine failure.
Despite the events of September 11, security at our airports is a joke, they are not searching and x-raying checked baggage, only carry on, and no matter how many times the flying public is asked for their "anything goes" ID, a terrorist has apparently succeded in checking a bomb aboard an airbus and killing 260+ people.
OMG Mandela just became a good guy.
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