November 13, 2001	Tuesday	Shaba’an 26, 1422

NEW YORK, Nov 12: Parts of the American Airlines jet that nosedived minutes after takeoff into a New York neighborhood have been found in four places in a “devastating” scene of fire and wreckage, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said.

“I don’t think there are any survivors at this point,” Giuliani told reporters after taking a helicopter tour above the scene of the crash about five miles (eight km) from John F. Kennedy international airport, said.

En route to Santo Domingo, the Airbus A300 crashed into about 10 houses, two of which were destroyed, said Giuliani.

“We are doing everything we can to recover as many bodies as possible,” said Giuliani. “We hope and pray that there are survivors but right now it looks very, very devastating.”

The main part of the plane crashed into houses, part of an engine fell onto a gas station, and part of the wing plunged into a nearby bay, he said.

A large fire broke out where the main cabin of the plane fell. A smaller fire broke out a few blocks away where other pieces of the plane hit ground, he added.

The flight, with 246 passengers and nine crew members aboard, had been scheduled to take off at 8:48 a.m. (1348 GMT) and crashed at 9:17 a.m. (1417 GMT), police said.

The mayor and Barry Mawn, head of the FBI in New York, said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash and that the National Transportation Safety Board was investigating.

“We don’t have evidence of what it is or what it is not,” Giuliani said.—Reuters

FEAR, ANGUISH: As many as 500 relatives of passengers on the plane that crashed in New York City early Monday rushed a part of the airport here seeking information on their loved ones, witnesses on the scene told AFP.

Two people were apparently suffering heart trouble upon hearing news of the fiery crash.

Police were forced to close the entrances to the airport and implement emergency security measures, according to witnesses.

Airport authorities made part of the airport available for families and were preparing to hold a press conference in the coming hours.

An American Airlines Airbus A300 ferrying 246 passengers and nine crewmembers slammed into a residential neighborhood in New York earlier Monday. The plane had just taken off from John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to this Caribbean city when it lost radio contact with authorities and crashed.

President Hipolito Mejia told reporters he was saddened by the accident, but declined to offer any further details about the plane’s passengers, saying he was awaiting more information from the consulate in New York.

No matter the number, he lamented “any event that results in the loss of a single human life.”—AFP