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Pilot Dumped Fuel Before Crash, Indicating Mechanical Failure
NEW YORK, Nov 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In the first bit of hard evidence regarding today's airplane crash, New York Governor George Pataki announced that the pilot of the doomed flight dumped fuel into Jamaica Bay seconds after take off, signaling that he became aware of a catastrophic mechanical failure.
Pataki and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced the information at a press conference in New York late today.
The American Airlines Airbus A-300 slammed into a residential district of New York City Monday, killing all 255 people on board, destroying homes.
American Airlines Flight 587 bound for Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic, crashed into the Rockaway area in the borough of Queens, three minutes (five miles) after taking off from John F. Kennedy airport.
"We know there are no survivors," New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told reporters at the crash site.
The Mayor said 161 bodies had so far been recovered, and that six people were missing on the ground, but there is still no word as to how many casualties there were on the ground.
Thick black smoke belched into the air after the plane hit, and shards of burning wreckage littered tree-lined residential streets, while fire consumed houses bathed in aviation fuel.
Twelve houses were damaged, including four that were destroyed, said Giuliani. One property was damaged when an engine of the doomed plane, almost intact, sliced into it.
Fearing a new wave of terror, Giuliani immediately put the city on high alert, two months after hijackers turned airliners into flying bombs and destroyed the city's landmark World Trade Center.
U.S. military jets were sent on combat patrols over the city.
All bridges, tunnels and airports serving New York were closed for nearly four hours.
Speculation immediately centred on a possible new terror attack, but the National Transportation Safety Board said no signs pointed to terrorism, a statement also reiterated by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"The NTSB is the lead agency because all the information we have currently is that this is an accident," agency chairwoman Marion Blakey said.
Blakey said the flight data recorder, or black box, had been recovered from the wreckage, which she said was "scattered over a wide area."
The White House said there were "no unusual communications" between the twin-engine jet and air traffic controllers before the crash.
Despite the high alert, Giuliani urged New Yorkers not to panic.
"Everyone should remain calm, we have talked to the White House several times, there is aircover, you can see the jets up in the air, making certain this is an isolated incident," Giuliani said.
Giuliani said eyewitness reports suggested an engine had tumbled from the doomed plane before it crashed into houses in the New York borough of Queens, opposite Manhattan.
"At least one group of people who saw it say that the engine came off first, then the plane crashed," Giuliani told local television.
A former fireman out for a morning walk said he saw a small explosion on board the plane before the crash.
"I saw a very distinct orange explosion and I think I saw the whole wing fall and then the plane just arched directly down into Rockaway where I live," he told CNN.
An unidentified woman told local television that she had looked out her window and saw the plane going down.
"It was intact, the wings were there, the tail was there, the nose was there, no smoke was coming from it against the blue sky. A huge silver plane going straight down."
Another witness told CNN he was crossing a bridge in Queens when he saw the plane flying very low overhead.
"We looked up, we saw the plane with fire coming out of the side," he said, adding that he saw something "fly off the plane."
"It flew right over us ... it veered to the left and then veered back to the right," he said.
American Airlines said 246 passengers and nine crewmembers were on board the plane.
"American Airlines will not speculate as to possible causes of the accident. At this point, no additional details can be confirmed," a statement said.
In Santo Domingo, 500 anguished relatives of passengers on the plane rushed to seek information on their loved ones.
The Airbus A300 left New York at 9:14 am (1414 GMT).
"Radio contact was lost at 9:17 am [1417 GMT]," FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto said.
A spokesman for the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) said fighter jets were scrambled on combat patrols soon after the crash.
"We were aware of the situation as soon as the FAA was," said Major Barry Venable, NORAD spokesman.
But asked whether U.S. fighter jets were involved in the crash, he said: "They were not."
After the hijackings of four commercial planes on September 11, which also targeted the Pentagon, the White House ordered military pilots to shoot down any more planes commandeered by terrorists.
On the streets of New York, bewildered citizens, still coming to terms with the carnage of September 11, gathered around televisions in shops, and police officers seeking details about the crash.
Giuliani said his first reaction to the disaster was: "Oh my God."
"The first thing that went through my mind is oh, my God. I just passed the church in which I've been to, I think, 10 funerals here."
The mayor, who shepherded the city through its last tragedy, said the Rockaway area where the plane went down had been badly hit by the World Trade Center disaster.
"The disproportionate number of the people we lost - not just the police and fire but even the workers at the World Trade Center - were from Rockaway and Staten Island," he said.
The United Nations building where the U.N. General Assembly annual debate is taking place was immediately sealed off and the Security Council stood in silence for one minute in tribute to the victims of the crash.
U.S. President George W. Bush and former South African President Nelson Mandela gave short statements in the White House Rose Garden expressing their condolences to the families of the victims.
"It is heartbreaking to have picked up the phone and called my friend Rudy Giuliani and Governor George Pataki and once again expressed our condolences, Bush stated.
"But there is no doubt in my mind that New Yorkers are resilient and strong and courageous and people and will help their neighbors overcome this recent incident that took place," he added.
"I would like to express my deepest sympathies for the crash that took place. It is unfortunate at this time since the U.S. lost so many people on September 11," Mandela stated.
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