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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)
Don't tell that to me...Tell that to the AA pilot..He said it..apparently it has to do with the airplane being rated to fly on one engine or something..I don't remember so don't hold me to it...but it was something like that..
according to the eye witness (from my other post) the plane was over the bay when the wing came off.
I heard it too. Since Airbus 300-600 is rated to fly fully fueled on one engine there is no fuel dumping capability in the Airbus 300-600. If there is fuel in the bay, it probably came from a rupured tank.
110 posted on 11/12/01 2:00 PM Pacific by Lessismore
Here is one of the original posts on this....
Second, many things besides a bomb can generate an explosion.
Third, do you have a link for the report that there was no fuel dump or Mayday?
Agree with you on this and this is the only point here to be argued.
But I'm not ruling out a mechanical problem. Airbus ain't a Boeing.
Many people seem to have convinced themselves that on Sept 11, there were 4 separate accidents involving planes, and they do not want to believe we are under attack even though there's a Jihad declared against us.
I would wonder in how many typical mechanical failures, the guages would not react in some way or the pilots would have no clue at all something was going wrong. I don't think this is an accident anymore than the 4 crashes on Sept 11 were accidents.
Why do you think they overhaul them at 10,000 hours?
>>Why would terrorists blow up a plane full of Haitians when they had their choice of planes loaded with Americans?<<
FIRST OF ALL, Don't presume I am saying this is necessarily a terrorist action, although it is *NO* great leap of logic to say there's a good chance it is. Anyone with an IQ over 3 can concede this, and it is sheer arrogance if anyone (I'm not saying you) would deride anyone else for thinking so.
BUT, to answer your question: Americans in Queens were killed by a plane FULL of fuel, thereby making it for all practical purposes, a BOMB.
I have never said conclusively that this is a terrorist attack. That would be as foolish as someone INSISTING (out of sheer ignorance) that it IS NOT.
Fair enough?
Whats that, that I have an IQ < 3 and I'm ignorant to boot?
I'm not insisting anything amigo. I'm reporting what I heard the witnesses say. You can do with it as you please but you can color me skeptical as to this being a terrorist attack.
I asked a simple question, you got your panties in a twist and attacked. Thats life.
Officials: Crash Likely an Accident
By TED BRIDIS
Associated Press Writer
November 12, 2001, 4:15 PM ESTWASHINGTON -- An accident rather than terrorism probably caused an American Airlines jet to plunge into a neighborhood in New York, federal officials said Monday. Investigators focused on an engine that fell away from the doomed plane.
The investigators swiftly reviewed the plane's maintenance records, but initially found "nothing indicative of a specific problem," said director Marion Blakey of the National Transportation Safety Board. Officials located the flight data recorder and rushed it to the nation's capital for analysis.
"All information we have currently is that this is an accident," said Blakey, as the Bush administration sent experts to the scene.
While the crash was horrific -- the plane carried 255 people to their deaths, and wreckage set several homes on fire in Queens _ the preliminary assessment seemed a relief of sorts for a nation struggling to recover from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and an outbreak of mail-spread anthrax.
President Bush was handed a note informing him of the crash moments after it occurred, and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge moved quickly to the White House Situation room to confer by telephone with FBI Director Robert S. Mueller and others. Officials gave some consideration to shutting down the nation's air travel system, as was done after the September attacks in New York and Washington, but decided against it after sifting through the available information.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said at the White House there had been no unusual communications between the cockpit and air traffic officials on the ground. He also said there had been no credible threats against airplanes in advance of the crash.
Fleischer declined to rule out terrorism but said he would not dispute the assessment of other officials who had said privately there was no preliminary evidence that terrorists had been involved.
Blakey made her comments a short while later.
The president spoke by phone with New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Gov. George Pataki. In a remarkable sign of the times, Giuliani said he had asked the president for "air cover" to protect his wounded city.
Blakey said debris fell over a wide area of Queens, a few miles from the airport where Dominican Republic-bound American Airlines Flight 587 plane took off. She noted there were reports of some wreckage recovered in Jamaica Bay.
Witnesses said there may have been an explosion on board the plane.
"It's too early for me to advance theories on this," Blakey said. But she noted in response to a question that engine parts were scattered "some distance from the actual crash crater."
At least one of the engines, believed to be from the right side, fell intact on a gas-station parking lot. American Airlines said the left engine on Flight 587 was freshly overhauled and the right engine was about due for maintenance after nearly 10,000 hours of operation.
General Electric Aircraft Engines, the Cincinnati-based subsidiary of General Electric Co., sent two experts to the crash site to assist federal investigators. GE manufactured the CF6-80C2 jet engines -- the same model as those installed on Air Force One _ that were mounted on the underside of each wing of the doomed flight.
"There are eyewitness reports that they saw the engine on fire and it reportedly landed in a separate place from the main body of the wreckage," said Susan Coughlin, a former vice chairwoman for the NTSB and now chief operating officer of American Trucking Associations Foundation. "That would certainly prompt the investigators to figure out why."
A Chicago-based lawyer, Tom Ellis of the Nolan Law Group, said photographs of the surviving engine showed "pretty clear evidence of an uncontained engine failure." His firm sued on behalf of victims of United Airlines Flight 232, which crashed in 1989 in Sioux City, Iowa, after an earlier version of the CF6 engine came apart in flight. So-called "uncontained engine failures" can result in an explosion of metal fragments as damaging as shrapnel from a bomb.
Earlier this year, on May 18, a problem with the same type of engine forced the emergency landing of a Monarch Airlines passenger jet in Portugal. Documents from the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch said a rotor blade snapped, puncturing the engine's housing with a 3-inch hole and causing minor damage to the wing. The pilots reported dramatic vibration, and British officials reported there had been "several similar failures prior to this event."
The FAA ordered airlines in June to begin regularly inspecting these types of engines for cracks in certain rotor disks, a component within the engines, after the dramatic failure of one engine when maintenance crews set it to high power during testing on the ground.
Last year, the FAA also ordered airlines to replace a fuel tube within these engines to prevent high-pressure leaks that investigators warned could result in an engine fire and damage to the airplane. Also last year, the FAA ordered carriers to remove certain fan shafts within these engines earlier than planned to prevent possible catastrophic failure.
GE spokesman Rick Kennedy said American completed all these inspections and repairs. "Airworthiness directives" from the FAA mandating such repairs are relatively common.
GE has built 2,954 of these engines -- first introduced in 1984 _ and they are among the best-selling for wide-bodied aircraft. Kennedy called the CF6 engines "phenomenally reliable," and said they have been installed on more than 1,000 planes worldwide.
___
Associated Press writer Jonathan D. Salant contributed to this report.<
(PROFILE (CO:AMR Corporation; TS:AMR; IG:TRV;) (CO:General Electric Co; TS:GE; IG:IDD;) )
Copyright © 2001, The Associated Press
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