The US authorities are urgently seeking to uncover the cause of yesterday's crash of an American Airlines Airbus A300-600 jetliner in New York. The government is ruling nothing out, but is taking steps consistent with a safety investigation rather than a criminal one.
Investigators took pains to play down speculation that the crash of Flight 587 was caused by sabotage, rattling a nation already on high alert for air attacks since those of September 11th.
"All information we have currently is that this is an accident," National Transportation Safety Board chief, Ms Marion Blakey, said. The safety board assembled an investigative team, which is routine in air crashes, to send to the crash site, in a residential area near JFK Airport. Ms Blakey said the board had been in contact with FBI and White House officials.
The journey of American Airlines Flight 587 lasted just three minutes before the Airbus jet plunged to earth, raining fire and terror on the Rockaway area in the borough of Queens.
The plane, a 13-year-old Airbus Industrie A300-600, was bound for the Dominican Republic and lifted off the runway at JFK at 9.14 am local time.
"Radio contact was lost at 9.17 am," Federal Aviation Authority spokesman Mr Paul Takemoto said. But conversations between ground controllers and the pilot gave no indication of anything unusual, officials said.
What took place in those final moments will only be known when the "black box" flight recorders, one of which has been found, are decoded.
New York Governor George Pataki said it seemed the pilot had started to dump fuel near the crash site. "We have been advised that they believe, as part of the investigation, that the pilot did dump fuel over Jamaica Bay before the crash, which is consistent with the pilot having some belief that there was a significant mechanical failure on the plane," he said. There are conflicting reports over whether there was an explosion in the air or whether the jet only blew up when it hit the ground.
Eyewitnesses reported that one of the aircraft's two engines fell off. A large part of an engine casing landed in a petrol station. It was unclear if other engine parts were underneath it or scattered nearby.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani said the wreckage was spread over a wide area. "The plane split in a number of parts," he said. "Some in Jamaica Bay. The major portion of the plane, right in the middle of Rockaway . . . then there was a major portion of an engine in a gas station, and then a smaller portion of an engine about four blocks away.
"There are a few contrary reports, but most of the witnesses seem to report that the plane split apart and then hit the ground at various places."
American Airlines said it had no idea what caused the crash, but the fact the NTSB was handling the investigation and not the FBI appeared to indicate that officials had no evidence to suggest terrorism was involved.
American Airlines said the jet in question last had routine maintenance on Sunday. This was the lightest of three important inspections performed periodically on commercial aircraft.
Officials said that it had undergone a more thorough check on October 3rd, but it was not clear if the two engines were examined during this check. It was due for a complete overhaul in July 2002.
Crews recovered the plane's flight data recorder and said there had been no unusual communication between air controllers and the cockpit before the crash.
The French-built aircraft was manufactured in 1988 - not considered old by aircraft standards. The plane's last major overhaul was in December 1999. The NTSB database showed no previous safety incidents for the aircraft.