American Airlines jet crashes in New York
November 12, 2001 Posted: 10:08 AM EST (1508 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNN) — An American Airlines jet with 255 people on board crashed Monday in a residential neighborhood after taking off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
American Airlines Flight 587 went down at 9:17 a.m. EST in the Rockway section of the New York City borough of Queens about five miles from Kennedy Airport. Mayor Rudy Giuliani said there were two crash sites — one where the plane landed and another where an engine landed. Both were about six blocks from a school building. The school was closed for the Veterans Day holiday.
The plane was scheduled to leave at 8:40 a.m. EST, but takeoff was delayed until 9:14 a.m. EST.
The plane, an Airbus A300, was en route from New York to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the plane was carrying 246 passengers and nine crew members.
An eyewitness told CNN, "I was in my kitchen.. and I saw the plane hit the house behind my house. It was so low, I was ducking almost, then huge fireballs and I jumped out of the ... window of my house.
"I ran right across the street ... it's unbelievable," she said, overcome by emotion. "It sounded like two planes. It was flying too low, and then it hit. It was like a bomb exploded."
Another eyewitness, Phyllis Paul, who lives near the crash site, said a "big, silvery piece of metal" fell behind her house before the plane went down.
"I was sitting having breakfast, and I heard the engines very loud," she said. "They were loud and low, and because of what happened September 11, it gave me a chill. ... I looked out of the window to see if I could see where it was."
Paul said she got her 10-year-old son and left the house.
"I didn't hear an explosion at first when I saw the metal fall. I hea…
Дальше »»»