Posted on 11/13/2001 4:39:33 AM PST by TLBSHOW
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
U.S. investigators said on Tuesday initial information from the cockpit voice recorder found in the wreckage of an American Airlines plane indicated Monday's crash was an accident and not sabotage. "The cockpit voice recorder is the biggest information that we have and a quick listen to that last evening in Washington showed nothing that would imply any sort of unusual activity in the cockpit other than the accident sequence," said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman George Black.
Speaking on ABC's "Good Morning America" show, Black said there were no unknown voices in the cockpit before Flight 587 crashed, just two minutes after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
"There was nothing on the tape that would lead us to believe that it was anything other than an aviation accident," he said, quashing speculation hijackers might have been on board in a repeat of the Sept. 11 aerial attacks on America.
Up to 269 people died in Monday's plane crash in a residential area in the borough of Queens in New York. Of those killed, 251 were passengers and nine were crew on board the plane, while nine people are missing on the ground.
The crash came just two months and one day after two hijacked commercial aircraft were rammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, killing some 4,300 people. Another hijacked plane crashed into a wing of the Pentagon and a fourth went down in Pennsylvania.
In an interview with NBC's "Today" show, Black said the possibility of sabotage could not be ruled out altogether in the case of the American Airlines flight and that the NTSB was cooperating with the FBI.
"We are not going to exclude that possibility until the investigation goes much further than this but right now there is no evidence (of sabotage)," he added.
Black said the distribution of the wreckage over a wide area, including parts in nearby Jamaica Bay, indicated that there might have been a mechanical problem on the plane before it crashed.
"The distribution of the wreckage is unusual. It indicates pieces were coming off the airplane very shortly after take-off," he said.
"To have pieces in the bay and the two engines not located with the fuselage indicates something went seriously wrong very quickly in the flight," he said.
He said the flight data recorder, which has not been found yet, would provide key information and fill in many of the gaps in the investigation.
Investigators will also be looking very closely at the plane's maintenance records and at who was involved in servicing the aircraft, he said.
"There was nothing on the tape that would lead us to believe that it was anything other than an aviation accident," he said, quashing speculation hijackers might have been on board in a repeat of the Sept. 11 aerial attacks on America.
They push the assumption that we REALLY believe that terrorists would repeat the performance of 9/11 in exactly the same way. Of course there were no terrorists on board of flight 587, the sabotage could easily have taken place on the ground.
You're right, consider the source (Reuters).
So? all that proves is that they weren't hijacked, and since they've fortified the doors now, was this ever even suggested by anybody as a possible scenario?
Pilot to co-pilot as on voice recorder tape:
"Oh for crying out loud Charlie, I went and accidentally
pushed the engine eject and tail disconnect button"
BTW--has anyone seen a map of the debris field yet? I haven't been able to locate one.
Can anybody think of any other plane that completely came apart because of a mechanical problem? Except for TWA 800, of course. Them pesky center fuel tanks.... It seems odd to me that a engine disintigration would be powerful enough to knock a wing and tail off the airplane, even at full power.
The last part, 'who was involved in servicing the aircraft', seems important to me. A few loosened bolts or odd parts lightly adhered to the inside of an engine could cause major problems in short order.
I'm waiting to hear that it was sabotage.
Does any one think other than me that "pieces were coming off" is new speak it exploded. Am I nuts or is this the fastest investigation in the history of aviation?
Matt Loser asked Mayor G point blank after one of his repsonses, "then what I hear you saying is that you think this was an accident and that you are ruling out terrorism" Mayor G corrected him saying "I am not ruling anything out at this point."
I personally think this was/is a cover up or at least we are in the initial stages of an attempt to cover this up. If someone in the administration doesn't come out saying this was a terror attack, the media would like nothing better than to expose this administration. Though they didn't have the berries to expose TWA 800 because it would make Slick look bad. Make no mistake. If this was indeed sabotage by Ahmid the Baggage Handler, it will get out with headlines saying the BUSH administration tried to cover it up lied to the people. They tried to throw mud on the admin about when they say the gov't knew about the anthrax,but didn't let the people know.
I just pray we are not playing the usual ugly government game of the people are idiots. It worked for Clintoon it will not work for us.
I'm with you, SLB.
So much for the NTSB's credibility, as if they ever had any.
I understand the reluctance to blame this on terrorism when there is no conclusive evidence, but the willingness of everyone to accept the mechanical failure explanation is beyond belief.
With the tail in the bay, one engine in a gas station, one into a house, and the fuselage in a fourth location, I would be hard pressed to come up with a scenario whereby failure of an engine could destroy an aircraft in this manner.
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