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American Morning

Plane Crashes into Suburban Home in Buffalo

Aired February 13, 2009 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: All right. And once again, we just want to bring everyone up to date who is just joining us for this breaking news at 6:00 here in New York. And we're following coverage right now and we're bringing you the latest details of this tragic plane crash that took place in Clarence Center in New York, which is about five miles outside of Buffalo. And we'd like to also welcome our international viewers who are joining us for this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

We're getting more information right now as we follow the crash of Continental Airlines. It was a flight that took off from Newark, New Jersey, supposed to be just a routine, you know, commuter flight. Several of them take off per day and unfortunately, this one ended in tragedy.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Well, let's get you updated. We're following the breaking news today. Here's what we know so far.

The crash of a Continental commuter plane into a house in suburban Buffalo, New York. Authorities say 49 people are dead, all 49 onboard. The plane and one person on the ground. Continental connection Flight 3407 went down just after 10:00 last night reportedly in icy conditions. It crashed in the small town of Clarence Center, just northeast of the airport. One witness said the impact felt like a mini earthquake.

The flight was headed from Newark, New Jersey, as Kiran was saying, to Buffalo, Niagara International Airport. Air traffic controllers lost communication with the aircraft when it was about just shy of six miles away from the end of the runway. The Continental commuter flight was operated by Colgan Air. The aircraft was a Bombardier, which every you prefer, Dash 8 Q400, 74-seat turboprop aircraft.

The plane obviously not full. Forty-four passengers onboard. Everyone on board the aircraft, 44 passengers and four crew, died at the tragic accident.

CHETRY: And, you know, the part that is still confounding experts, aviation experts and others today is the fact that it's seen that this went from a routine flight to dropping off the radar screen with really no sign of trouble. In fact, they say that the first sign of trouble was when it went off the radar. And we do have some of that audio from the air traffic controllers in the minutes before the crash. There did not appear to be any stress from the flight crew or the air traffic controllers. Let's listen to what followed after controllers then lost contact with Flight 3407.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: COLGAN 34-7, approach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: COLGAN 3407, (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: COLGAN 34-7, now approach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: DELTA 1998, look off your right side about five miles for a Dash 8, should be 43 hundred, you see anything there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh, negative Delta 1998, we're just in the bottoms and nothing off TKs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 3407, Buffalo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 3407, Buffalo Tower, how do you hear?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE), this is ground communication. We need to talk to somebody at least five miles northeast, OK, possibly Clarence, that area right in there. Akron area, either state police or sheriff's department. We need to find if anything is on the ground.

This aircraft was five miles out and all of a sudden we have no response on that aircraft.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I can tell you is the aircraft's over the marker and we're not talking to them now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Let me get right back to you sir, but apparently we have an emergency, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, for all aircraft this frequency, we did have a Dash 8 over the marker that didn't make the airport. It appears to be about five miles away from the airport there, Delta 1998, I'm going to bring you in, sir, on the approach. If you could just give me a (INAUDIBLE) when you get to 2300, and if you have any problem with the localizer or anything let me know. However, we're showing that all (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cactus, did you find Colgan?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Um, unfortunately, they said he went down about right over the marker (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh, tower, Cactus 1452's coming up on the clock and we saw the ground, you guys know what's going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cactus 1452, Buffalo Tower (INAUDIBLE) two three to clear landing, yes sir, we are aware. OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: All right, that was some of the transmission that we heard there and again at the end he just said there's no communication with them, and that was really the only indication that there was trouble at that point.

ROBERTS: And further down the tape there are a couple of incidents where, a couple other pilots of other aircraft report that they did get some icing on the wings, picking it up about 20 miles south of the airport. So perhaps it was just about that time of the crash that icing conditions were beginning to form and could that have been a contributor to the crash. That's what the NTSB Go-Team have been looking into this accident will be immediately investigating. They're supposed to leave Reagan Airport right about now in Washington and heading up to Buffalo, so they should be there within about an hour and a half.

CHETRY: All right. And we've been getting these i-Reports from the scene all morning. Earlier we spoke to Anthony Trigilio. He was a 19-year-old living about a minute, he said, by car away from the scene, heard something and grabbed his video camera and got out there. And this is what he captured, the big blaze, the black smoke in the air. This is how Anthony described what the scene was like shortly after the crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF ANTHONY TRIGILIO, IREPORTER & WITNESS TO CRASH: I parked about a block down the road, and on my way walking there, I saw a lot of people, most of them seemed really upset. A lot of people were walking around. I saw a lot of fire trucks and firemen and policemen. I asked a few people what was going on, and one person said that they thought there was a plane crash. That's when I found out.

The heat, and you could certainly smell that something was burning, and it just was really chaotic. It was really hectic. You can't really pinpoint a specific feeling, just because it was cold. It was starting to snow. It was slushy. It was frantic. You know, there are so many people. It was pretty chaotic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: All right, again, that was Anthony Trigilio who lived right in the area and was able to get out there, describing the chaos of the scene. We also have a quick update that I wanted to bring you that we just got in from our desk here at CNN about some injuries.

A Buffalo area hospital saying that they're treating four people right now at the crash site. One was the mother and daughter inside of the home that was hit, another, two firefighters brought in for smoke inhalation and also treatment of minor injuries. I guess a foot injury for one. Earlier it was described as really quite miraculous that more people at the scene weren't hurt. I mean, you got a 64,000-pound aircraft, 5,000 pounds of fuel burning and all of these volunteer fire fighting agencies descending on the scene, only two with minor injuries.

ROBERTS: Yes. Pretty remarkable that the mother and her daughter managed to get out. Unfortunately, her husband trapped inside and he's the fatality on the ground in this case.

CHETRY: By the way, this is, again, an iReport that's coming in to us from Anthony Trigilio who was there at the scene. If you have captured any images or video of the crash and would like to file an iReport, go to ireport.com. Of course, we're saying use caution first, be careful first. But if you are near the scene or you live in the area and captured anything that you would like to share with us, we'd be happy to be able to take that in.

CHETRY: Well, Flight 3407 was delayed for about two hours before it left Newark Liberty International Airport. That's where CNN's Allan Chernoff is live this morning. A lot of heavy winds in the New York area last night, Allan, and delays at all of the airports.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: That's right, those heavy winds continuing. And, John, I can tell you that the first flight taking off for Buffalo will be leaving at 6:40 this morning. That's Continental connection 3407. Continental does have a full schedule planned up to Buffalo for today.

I spoke to a Continental greeter inside Terminal C here at Newark Airport and he said that, through the night, there had been a few family members of people who were on board that doomed flight, who came to the airport, asked, and the Continental greeters said that "we've been taking care of their needs." I said, well, what exactly does that mean? He said there's a secure location here where they've been allowing people to gather, but also, he did indicate that some do want to head up to Buffalo.

It's certainly very possible that there are some family members who will be boarding that Flight 3401. I was in the terminal for about a half hour. Could not find anyone headed up to Buffalo, but also, he indicated, that some said that they did want to drive up, and it seems that Continental is going to help them with those arrangements as well. So that's what we have from here at Newark -- John.

ROBERTS: All right. Allan Chernoff for us at Newark Liberty International Airport, which was the originating point of Flight 3407. Allan, thanks so much.

CHETRY: And the doomed commuter plane was a Continental connection Flight Number 3407. It was operated by Colgan Air. And this morning we're learning more about the aircraft itself and its safety record.

Jason Carroll is following that part of the story for us. Good morning, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And hello to you, Kiran. The NTSB has assembled its Go-Team and will be leaving shortly from Washington, D.C. The plane in terms of what type of plane it was, we're trying to gather as much information as we can.

The plane was a Bombardier Q400 Dash 8 turboprop. In aviation industry, the Q came to be known for the quiet engines. It's a 74- seat twin-engine operated by Colgan Airways, a feeder airline for Continental. It was manufactured by De Havilland Canada. And according to our research, this is the first time there has been a crash involving fatalities on this type of aircraft in the United States. A little bit more about the plane's record, there have been 27 occurrences of this type of aircraft. The last record of fatalities was in June, 1995, in New Zealand.

As for the age of the plane, that crash in Buffalo, records show the first flight of the turboprop was in 2008, so this was a new plane. This type of plane also had a history of having issues with fuel lines and landing gear. Scandinavian Airlines permanently grounded its fleet of Dash 8 after three crash landing related to landing gear problems in 2007.

Also, the FAA said more maintenance checks were needed on the turboprop after an assessment of potential problems with the fuel system, which could result in a fuel tank explosion.

Pilots on board the Buffalo flight did not report a problem upon reproach. You've heard that from many of our aviation experts. That, of course, does not mean there wasn't a problem. The NTSB is going to be sorting all of this out. Again, their Go-Team should be headed out at any minute now, headed toward Buffalo from Washington, D.C.

What they're going to find there, we're told, the only recognizable piece left of the plane seems to be the tail. NTSB investigators will look at every part of the plane and try to reconstruct whatever they can. Again, though it is just too early to suggest what happened here -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Jason Carroll for us this morning, thanks.

ROBERTS: Of course, one of the first things that the NTSB investigators will be looking at is what potential role weather played in contributing to this crash. We know that there were heavy winds here in the New York City area last night. Our Allan Chernoff was talking about that.

Up there in Buffalo, the winds weren't exactly a problem but there was some snow falling, some sleet, maybe a little bit of freezing rain as well. Could that have played a part? Investigators will want to know.

Our Rob Marciano is following that part of the story for us. Rob, exactly what were the conditions last evening?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know, you mentioned some of those conditions, and it's certainly something you wouldn't want to be driving a car in, let alone a plane.

At around 10:00 last night, we had three-mile visibility at the surface, temperatures 33 degrees, a mixture of light, snow, some mist, and some fog. Winds were gusty, southwesterly winds at about 15 miles an hour. They gusted to 25 but the plane itself was landing to the southwest, so that's typically not an issue. Ceilings were low at about 2,000 feet, so the pilots wouldn't see the runway until they got below that marker.

Here's a look at the radar, what it looked like last night, during the time this plane was trying to land. You notice the beginning of this loop, here's the time clock up here. Early on, we had the mixture of the blues and the pinks so that was rain mixing in with sleet and freezing rain at times. And then by the time 1:00 a.m. got around, everything was all snow. So the atmosphere was in transition from a mixture to being all snow by the time midnight rolled around, and certainly when it's in that transition and when you have that mixture, you're certainly more likely to have ice buildup on surfaces.

All right, so that's the weather situation scenario there. I want to show you some interesting sites here on Google Earth that we've been working on.

Buffalo here, Clarence Center about six miles away from the airport there at the crash site, and kind of zoom into this neighborhood and some phenomenal tools that Google Earth has provided us with, with the advent of photography within these neighborhoods. We're actually able to zoom into the street as well. 6038 Long Street is the site of this crash and we believe this to be the home where that plane went down, and one of the nicer homes actually on the street, well-manicured there and well kept up and just kind of give you a feel for what this neighborhood looks like during the summertime, during the daylight. Certainly well-kept neighborhood, looks to be a fairly quiet street, that not to be the case obviously this morning. A rude awakening to say the least there as they cope with this tragedy.

John, back up to you.

ROBERTS: Oh, Rob, that's an extraordinary look and eerie as well. I mean, very strange to look at that home the way that it was before the plane came down on top of it. Incredible. Rob, thanks.

MARCIANO: All right now.

CHETRY: Brendan Biddlecom lives just two blocks from that crash site that Rob just showed us. He heard the plane go down. He had an up-close view of the fireball of flames that resulted after that crash. He joins us now on the phone from his home in Clarence Center, New York.

Brendan, thanks for being with us this morning.

VOICE OF BRENDAN BIDDLECOM, WITNESS: Hello, hi.

CHETRY: All right. Set the scene for us. Tell us what it was like and how you first became aware that this plane went down.

BIDDLECOM: Well, you know, I was in my home at the time about quarter after 10:00, which is about two blocks away from the crash site. I had just put my children down to sleep not too long before, and heard what was clearly a plane approaching, but it was coming in fast, just by the sound of it. And the sound itself was certainly something I hadn't ever heard before, and there are a number of planes that do approach typically from this direction. Sounded like the plane was close to the house and again was making a low humming sound that was very unfamiliar, a very odd sound.

My first thought was, you know, this sounds like a plane going down, and really as soon as that thought registered, a moment later there was a loud crash and then an explosion, and the house just shook at the foundation, And, you know, that kind of confirmed for me what my initial inclination was, and I ran outside.

Didn't see anything at first, but a few moments later, there was some additional explosions, and then the flame just started, you know, huge infernos up into the sky. It was lighting it up, and you know, it was pretty clear at that point what was going on.

CHETRY: Brendan, for people who are just joining us this morning, just to update them on what's been going on, so this was a plane that was carrying 44 passengers and four crew members. All of them killed, when this plane crashed, nose down like a fireball into a home. Inside that home, one man reported killed. Two other people in the home, his wife and apparently adult child treated for minor injuries at the hospital. They were able to get out.

Now you were two blocks away. Did you know this family?

BIDDLECOM: Did I know the family? No, I didn't, actually. I knew the next-door neighbors. I do know the next-door neighbors but not the family that I believe was impacted most directly. But, you know, and now the passengers of the plane obviously, this is the most tragic part of it and really going to put things in perspective for me, I can say the least.

CHETRY: It really does because as we were hearing from some of the emergency management officials there in Clarence Center, they were remarking on the fact that this could have easily taken out more houses. And when we saw the Google Earth street view of just how close together the homes are, really, it's remarkable that more homes did not catch fire, even from the resulting fireball after the plane crashed.

BIDDLECOM: Sure. I mean, we were -- that's something my neighbors and I were all commenting on, just in the immediate aftermath. You know, gosh, I mean, a few hundred yards it could have been any of us and, you know, I think, again, it just really puts things into perspective what's important in life and, you know, I think everybody just went home and, you know, hugged their families, and you know, kind of pulled back for a moment and say, gosh, you know, this is a terrible thing. But, you know, we're also pretty fortunate as well that it could have been a lot worse. It is a dense neighborhood, as you mentioned.

CHETRY: Right.

BIDDLECOM: And, you know, the impact could have been many more homes and many more lives.

CHETRY: And you know, we really take for granted firefighters and how they put their lives at risk as well in this situation. We had nine volunteer departments all responding. We got word that there were four or five others from the nearby vicinity that also came to help out with this situation.

You know, they're running towards something everybody else is trying to get away from especially in this situation. We did get word that two firefighters treated at a local hospital for smoke inhalation and I believe minor foot injury. But in this situation as well they were desperately trying to see whether or not they were survivors.

They described the flames as so ferocious and such heat coming from this site that they were not even able to get close enough at that point. Describe a little bit more of what that situation was right there in your neighborhood after this happened.

BIDDLECOM: Well, I mean, that report sounds pretty accurate from what I saw. I wasn't even that close but you know, probably I'd say a couple hundred yards away from the impact site. I mean, again, initially there was -- there was not -- there weren't huge flames but within a few moments afterwards, again, additional explosion. My assumption would be that that was, you know, the rocket fuel going off and, you know, just hundreds of feet in the air flames. Just something like that never seen before us. It was surreal. It reminded me of what you might see, you know, if a bomb would go off.

CHETRY: And in this neighborhood, you guys are within the flight pattern of some flights that come into Buffalo, Niagara airport. Is this something that even crossed your mind? You know, was the presence of, you know, air traffic something that you felt in your everyday life or was this sort of just an afterthought?

BIDDLECOM: I mean there's always those morbid thoughts that go through your head at any time, but you know, I mean, you never actually think it's going to happen. I mean, the fact that it did, again it still hasn't fully sunk in. I don't know if it has for any of us.

CHETRY: Right. They say that 12 homes were evacuated near the crash site. Do you know anything about when you guys are going to get the go-ahead if they have to stay evacuated as the investigation takes place? Have you been getting any updates from local law enforcement?

BIDDLECOM: No, I mean, honestly it's just really been the media that's been contacting. I haven't heard anything from the emergency crews or law enforcement or the investigators. I don't know if that's going to change.

You know, we weren't evacuated here. We were far enough outside the crash site that we were OK, although there was a period of time where we thought about leaving just because the dense smoke that was, you know, getting pushed over from the crash site even for awhile, there was a thick cloud of, you know, very acrid-smelling smoke that was engulfing pretty much the whole neighborhood.

CHETRY: I can imagine and as you said it certainly puts things in perspective today for many in that area.

Brendan Biddlecom, living two blocks away from that crash site, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

BIDDLECOM: You're welcome.

ROBERTS: We're following breaking news for you this morning. The crash of a Continental Airlines commuter plane into a house in suburban Buffalo, New York. Authorities say 49 people are dead, all 48 on board the plane. It was 44 passengers, four crew and one person on the ground.

Continental connection Flight 3407 went down just after 10:00 last night reportedly in icy conditions. It crashed into a house in Clarence Center. The flight was headed from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Air traffic controllers lost communication with the aircraft when it was about six miles away from the airport. The Continental commuter flight was operated by Colgan Air. It was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, a 74-seat turboprop.

And as the morning unfolds, we're hearing from some of the people directly touched by this tragedy. Our Alina Cho has been monitoring it all night long. She joins us now with more.

Good morning. Just a terrible tragedy and you can imagine what some of those people are going through.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. You know, we're hearing from family members. We're hearing from eyewitnesses. We're hearing from people who almost got on that flight but didn't for whatever reason. It's really incredible to hear 49 people killed, 48 on the plane, one on the ground. So many families in mourning today.

Some we're hearing today are sad, the stories, but they're also shocking. Take Beverly Eckert. According to "The Buffalo News," she was a passenger on Flight 3407. She was also a 9/11 widow. She had lost her husband in the World Trade Center. There you see her.

She was actually traveling to Buffalo for what was supposed to be a celebration of what would have been her husband's 58th birthday. In fact, she planned to take part in the presentation of a scholarship award that she established in her husband's honor. Family members told the "Buffalo News" we know she was on that plane and now she's with him.

Then there's the story of Ellyce (ph) Kausner. She was also a passenger on Flight 3407. Her brother, Chris, first heard the news on the radio. He called his parents and then he talked to reporters. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS KAUSNER, SISTER ON PLANE: My parents are on vacation in Florida and I had to call down there and tell my father what was going on. And I, I'm just thinking about my mom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are they taking it?

KAUSNER: To tell you the truth, I heard my mother making noise in the phone that I'd never heard before. My other sister, Laura, was waiting at the airport. I heard on the radio that there had been a crash, so I called immediately to see if the plane had landed at the airport or not. And initially, she thought that it had but it turns out that is not the case.

Right now, I'm thinking the worst, and I'm thinking about the fact that my mother has to fly home from Florida, and what I'm going to tell my two sons. That's what I'm thinking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: So sad to hear that story. You know, there are stories of close calls. Suzy Reinhardt, she travels from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York every Thursday. Her plane was delayed, and she actually thought about getting on Flight 3407. But for whatever reason at the last minute, she decided not to. And here is how she described the scene at the airport when her flight landed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF SUZY REINHARDT, ALMOST GOT ON FLIGHT 3407: Nobody said anything. We got our bags, and it was late. There were other planes that were delayed and now that I look back at it, I'm thinking there were an awful lot of people waiting for passengers. I'm thinking, who is waiting for somebody at 11:00 at night on a Thursday? And it turns out, it was these people waiting for people to get off that plane.

My phone didn't stop ringing, because I am almost always on that flight every Thursday. I'm on -- everyone knows, oh, Suzy's on the flight from Newark to Buffalo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, fortunately.

REINHARDT: And, yes, my phone just kept ringing. People were saying, one of my best friends called me and she said my husband made me get out of bed and call to see if you made it home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: Imagine getting off that flight, getting those phone calls not knowing what had just taken place. And imagine, guys, the range of emotions that she must be feeling. You know, relief that she was not on that flight, sadness for the victim's families and, of course, there's something called survivor's guilt, which we all know about.

ROBERTS: Yes. CHO: People who survive plane crashes, car crashes and the like, you know, that is an emotion that is real and that people feel as well.

ROBERTS: And the story, too, of Brenda (sic) Eckert, the widow of the 9/11 victim. You know, you think back to September the 11th. She was at her and her husband's home in Stanford, Connecticut, talking to him on the telephone. He was in the South Tower, you know, going back and forth about what was happening. She was watching it on television. She said she heard a sudden huge whoosh, and then silence.

CHO: And that's -- you see her right there. She actually was a guest on AMERICAN MORNING. back in September of 2003.

ROBERTS: Yes.

CHO: I think you pointed that out a bit earlier in our coverage. She was actually an ardent protester and fought very publicly, because she was against rebuilding on the footprint of the World Trade Center. And so she came on our air and she's very publicly protesting that. Was very angry about it.

ROBERTS: Yes. She was a survivor right out.

CHO: She was. She absolutely was.

ROBERTS: Wanted an appropriate memorial built for the victims of 9/11.

CHO: It's ironic but sadly that's why we have the video of her but so many stories like that. Imagine what that family is going through.

But remember, and I talked about this earlier, you know, there's so much talk in the past month about the miracle on the Hudson flight. You know, in just the past week, we saw the crew come out, Sully and the rest of the crew members and the reunions between the crew and those passengers and what a happy occasion that was...

ROBERTS: Yes.

CHO: ... for not just those people on the flight, but for the entire country, really such an uplifting story.

ROBERTS: The last fatal plane crash in this country was August 27th, 2006, when that Comair flight ran off the end of the runway in Lexington, Kentucky.

CHO: Right.

ROBERTS: So we've somewhat become sort of feeling like we were immune to disaster in the air.

CHO: That's right. And especially --

ROBERTS: And as you said with 1549 coming in for a safe landing, people thought, wow.

CHO: Right.

ROBERTS: All these good outcomes.

CHO: Right, there can be good outcomes but clearly, clearly this really hits home when you see something like this happen.

ROBERTS: Yes.

CHO: And it's just so sad for so many of these families.

ROBERTS: It certainly is. Alina, thanks.

CHO: You bet.

ROBERTS: We want to get the latest now on what's going on at the crash site at 26 minutes past the hour.

Reporter Lisa Scott joins us on the phone from Clarence Center, New York.

Lisa, as I understand, you're right at the roadblock from where they cordoned off the immediate area. What can you tell us about what's going on there?

VOICE OF LISA SCOTT, REPORTER AT CRASH SITE: Yes. They're keeping us several miles away from the crash scene. We're being told that the crash scene itself is not going to be safe enough for investigators to take a closer look until later today, around noon.

The National Transportation Safety Board is putting together a team to come to Buffalo to take a closer look at this, just devastating tragedy. But again, we do know that 49 people are dead after a plane just dropped out of radar en route to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, and crashed right onto a house. Forty- four passengers were killed on board, four crew members, and one person on the ground, in the home. We are told that two women in the home were able to escape with just minor injuries.

Now, this happened around 10:20 last night in Clarence. This is a suburb outside of Buffalo, New York. It's a Colgan Air Flight 3407 that was cleared for approach. There was no sign of any distress in the pilot's voice, and then it just disappeared from radar.

Now, we spoke with a witness who said that he was driving in the area and it felt like a mini earthquake, so certainly for residents here waking up this morning, to take a look at this neighborhood, where just one house remarkably was destroyed.

Dave Bissonette, who is the Disaster Service Center coordinator for the town of Clarence, says it is really just amazing that just this one house was damaged. Houses on either side of it just a little bit of damage, but it is remarkable. But indeed, it is a tragedy this morning here outside of Buffalo, New York. CHETRY: And Lisa, I know, as you said, they are keeping people away, especially reporters and those who aren't, of course, immediately helping respond to the emergency, away from that immediate area. Have you heard anything from emergency officials as to what the chances are of being able to recover the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, because, of course, the fiery nature and the high temperatures with which all of that 5,000 pounds of fuel is and was burning at?

SCOTT: Yes, we haven't heard about that yet. I'm sure when the National Transportation Safety Board shows up, we will have a better idea. I think we're definitely going to know a lot more later today around noon when hopefully we can get a closer look at just what happened there.

CHETRY: Lisa Scott for us right in Clarence Center this morning, not far from where this tragedy happened. Thanks, Lisa.

ROBERTS: We're just coming up to the half hour now and we're following breaking news this morning.

A tragic and surreal scene outside of Buffalo, New York, after a Continental Airlines commuter plane crashes into a house in the town of Clarence Center. Let's get you up-to-date here this morning.

Authorities confirm that 48 passengers and crew on board the Continental Flight 3407 are dead. One person in the house that the plane landed on was also killed. Two people did manage to escape that home, though. They're in the hospital.

A Buffalo hospital says that it's treating four people in total at the injured crash site. The other two people being treated a couple of firefighters who suffered from smoke inhalation when they responded to the crash. The only part of the plane that is left is the tail section. It can be seen sticking out of the ground in many of the pictures that we've seen this morning.

The flight was headed from Newark Airport to Buffalo. There was light snow, sleet and fog as the plane was preparing to land. Air traffic controllers seemed to be guiding it in on a pretty routine approach when they suddenly lost communication with the aircraft. It was just slightly less than six miles away from the airport.

A team of NTSB investigators left Reagan National Airport in Washington about a half hour an ago on its way now to the crash site and should be in the Buffalo area and in Clarence Center probably by about 8:00 this morning.

We have audio from the exchange between the air traffic controllers and the pilots of Continental or Colgan Airways Flight 3407 in the moments before the crash. There did not appear to be any stress from the flight crew. Let's take a listen, though, to what followed after controllers lost contact with the flight.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 34-7, approach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 34-7, Buffalo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 34-7, now approach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Delta 1998, look off your right side about five miles for a Dash 8, should be 4300, you see anything there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Negative Delta 1998, we're just in the bottoms and nothing off TKs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colgan 3407, Buffalo.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Colgan 3407, Buffalo Tower, how do you hear?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) some ground communication. We need to talk to somebody at least five miles northeast, OK, possibly Clarence, that area right in there, Akron area, either state police or sheriff's department. We need to find if anything is on the ground. This aircraft was five miles out and all of a sudden we have no response on that aircraft.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I can tell is the aircraft's over the marker, and we're not talking to them now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me get right back to you, sir. But apparently we have an emergency and I'll get back as soon as I can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, for all aircraft this frequency, we did have a Dash 8 over the marker that didn't make the airport. It appears to be about five miles away from the airport. There, Delta 1998, I'm going to bring you in, sir, on the approach.

If you could just give me fire up when you get to 2300 and if you have any problem with the localizer or anything you let me know however we're showing that all in the green here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cactus, did you find Colgan?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, they said he went down about right over the marker (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tower Cactus 1452's coming up on the clock and we saw the ground, you guys know what's going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cactus 1452, Buffalo Tower into 26014 (ph), 23 to clear landing, yes, sir, we are aware.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(END AUDIO CLIP) ROBERTS: And there you hear communications between the air traffic controllers and other pilots in the area after 3407 -- Colgan Airways Flight 3407 disappeared off radar. You heard them talking to aircraft identified as Cactus. That's US Airways, as we found out last week or the week before when the US Airways Flight 1549 went down in the Hudson River.

And if you listened to the earlier part of those recordings you hear communications between the approach control there in Buffalo and the first officer of 3407. There does not appear to be any indication from what we've been able to ascertain of any problem at all, although if you do listen to parts of the tape a little bit further down from the section that we just aired for you, there are a couple of reports from pilots that they have been picking up icing between about 6,000 feet down to 3,500 feet and it should be noted, too, that the communications that you hear between approach control and Flight 3407 prior to it disappearing off the radar screen were in that area between 6,000 feet and 2,300 feet.

So perhaps icing might have been a problem. Did it contribute to the crash? That's something that the NTSB will be looking into as soon as the go team arrives there. Kiran?

CHETRY: And we've been getting iReports from people that were at the scene or near the scene all morning. Earlier this morning we spoke to Anthony Trigilio, who sent us this video. He talked about hearing some sort of noise loud enough that he could hear it over the stereo that he was playing, got in his car, about a minute away and with his camcorder and this is what he saw when he arrived.

And you see that ball of flames and smoke coming up from where the plane went down, nose first into that home. Here's what he talked about and what he witnessed shortly after the crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY TRIGILIO, CNN IREPORTER & WITNESS TO CRASH: What happened was I parked about a block down the road and on my way walking there, I saw a lot of people, most of them seemed really upset, a lot of people were walking around. I saw a lot of fire trucks, firemen and policemen. I asked a few people what was going on and one person that they thought there was a plane crash. That's when I found out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: All right, and there we go...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRIGILIO: And you could kind of feel the heat and you could certainly smell that something was burning, and it's just -- it was really chaotic, it was really hectic. You couldn't really pinpoint a specific feeling just because it was cold. It was starting to snow. It was slushy. It was frantic. You know, there were so many people. It was pretty chaotic. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Certainly was chaotic. Again, it's being described by one fire official as the plane basically diving right into the top of this house, resulting in that fiery explosion that ended up killing all 48 people on board, and one person in the home at the time.

We're, of course, going to be following the story all morning long and if you have images or video of the crash that you'd like to share, please go to iReport.com, but please remember, as we're doing it, to put safety first, of course -- John.

ROBERTS: We want to show you an amazing view of what the home looked like before last night. This is at 6038 Long Street in Clarence Center. It's made possible through Google Street View. Just an incredible view here as we go in through the bubble in the middle of what would appear to be your typical American suburb before disaster came out of nowhere, and there is the home, 6438 Long Street.

Three people were inside this house when Flight 3407 crashed into it at about 10:15 last night. A mother and daughter escaped. They're in the hospital now without serious injuries. The third person in the house, the husband, did not make it out alive.

An eerie view there of much calmer times, a summer day on Long Street in Clarence Center, and you take a look at that house, not there anymore, flames 50 to 100 feet high, roaring out of it last evening, when that Dash 8 came down square on top of it. According to emergency officials in Eerie County, the plane literally consumed the entire footprint of that home, but they say, thankfully, it wasn't worse.

The trajectory that the plane came in on contained it. It's just to that property. They said if it had come in on a different angle it could have wiped out half the neighborhood.

Joining us now live on the telephone is Harry Skull Jr. He is a staff photographer with "The Buffalo News." He lives in Clarence Center.

Harry, take me back to last evening, it's about 10:15, 10:20. You're at home. What did you hear?

HARRY SCULL JR., PHOTOGRAPHER, THE BUFFALO NEWS: About 10:19, I heard the fire alarms go off, and which they do seldom here and I didn't put much stock into it and then the phone rang less than a minute later and I knew that it must have been something. I have a lot of friends in the town and I figure if something big happens they usually give me a call. My neighbors called frantically letting me know that a plane had crashed into a house and was on fire.

ROBERTS: So you hadn't actually heard the aircraft at all? You didn't hear it come overhead? You didn't hear that whine of the engines that some people describe?

SCULL: No, no... ROBERTS: You simply heard the fire alarm?

SCULL: I had to be honest with you, I think I had the TV up a little louder than what -- I should have, and no, I did not hear it. But I do live, I do live right in the flight path, and I can tell you this, if you ask me if I'm surprised that this happened I'm going to tell you no. Being a photojournalist, I've played this over and over in my head, knowing that this was going to happen one day and how I was going to react.

ROBERTS: Right, and how...

SCULL: When darkness comes...

ROBERTS: OK.

SCULL: ... these planes get lower and lower and lower.

ROBERTS: Now, Harry, did the planes actually get lower or does it just sound like they get lower because...

SCULL: No, they get lower.

ROBERTS: ... sound does tend to be amplified at night.

SCULL: No, no, no. They get lower. The lights, they're -- you know, the lights will illuminate inside the house, they get that low.

ROBERTS: Wow, interesting. All right, so you said that you played it over in your mind many, many times what you would do, what your instincts would tell you to do when this happened, so what did happen when you got that call?

SCULL: When I got the call, I looked out the front window. I could see the flames from a mile away, lighting up the sky. I grabbed my son, Michael. I said, "Let's go." We grabbed the computers, we grabbed the laptop, the cameras, and we got out the door. I actually got on location in less than five minutes after the aircraft had hit the house, and started making my images, knowing that my newspaper would be on a tight deadline, and got what I could get that I felt safe, and then got out of there and start transmitting to my newspaper.

ROBERTS: You know, Harry, I don't know if you were watching CNN just before we put you up on the air there but we had this surreal scene from Google Earth and we're looking at it right now in our vista wall, where you can see the property at 6038 Long Street there on a pastoral summer day, beautifully manicured lawn, neatly kept house and it's just gone. And it's just incredible to see the contrast between that and the pictures that we have been getting in.

What was the scene itself like when you arrived there?

SCULL: It was chaotic. It was just a big ball of flames and it was chaotic. I'm sure these firemen have trained for this, but you know, being seven, eight miles away from the airport, I'm sure they never thought this day would come and then it's there in front of you.

ROBERTS: So you're a news photographer. You know, photographers, journalists are trained, get close to the scene, try to ascertain what's happened and get the images that you know your readers are going to want to see.

Could you get close to that house? I mean how intense was the fire?

SCULL: You know the fire was intense. I did not have to get that close, you know? With the longer zoom lens, I was able to get what I needed to show the scene, and, you know, knowing I was on a tight time frame, I wanted to get it back to our newspapers so that we could have it for our first edition.

ROBERTS: Mm-hmm. Clarence Center there, it's a fast-growing community but still a relatively small community. How long have you lived there? Did you know people who lived on the street? Did you happen to know the people who lived in the home at 6038 Long Street?

SCULL: No. I've been in Clarence Center 11 years. Where that took place tonight is an older part of Clarence Center so that's some of the people that helped establish this town many, many years ago. And I don't know if you know this or not but the plane crashed right across the street from the Volunteer Fire Company.

ROBERTS: Yes, we had heard that and then that's why they were on the scene so quickly and we understand also that the local hospital is treating a couple of firefighters, who, you know, rushed to the scene, tried to put out the fire, tried to ascertain if there were any survivors and suffered from smoke inhalation. Apparently their injuries are not serious. As well as the two women who were inside the house are in the hospital as well and remarkably their injuries are fairly minor as well.

But, Harry, as you said, you've lived there 11 years. What kind of an impact is this going to have on Clarence Center, on that community there?

SCULL: It will be everlasting. It will be everlasting. I mean, you know, you know, this area in western New York gets a bad rap for a lot of things, whether it be, you know, O.J. Simpson or Tim McVeigh or losing Super Bowls. It's going to be sad, because for eternity people are going to come and mourn the loss in this area on this day.

ROBERTS: Yes, absolutely.

SCULL: It's never going to change.

ROBERTS: And as the sun starts to come up there, people will be looking at the scene. They've got quite a large area cordoned off and I'm sure some curious people will come out to try to take a look at it and it's going to make the tragedy seem that much more real.

Harry Scull Jr., from "The Buffalo News," photographer, thanks so much for joining us this morning, Harry. Appreciate it. CHETRY: All right, so we've been talking all morning about this tragedy and we're getting new developments out. Forty minutes ago was when the NTSB go team, as they call it, left to head to Buffalo. We're going to find out more information. But they say it could be hours before it's even deemed safe enough to be able to get there and begin investigating.

When we come back we're going to hear from our aviation expert again, get him to weigh in on some of the new information we've been getting this morning. So we're going to take a quick break at 43 minutes past the hour. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well if you're just waking up this morning, we're following tragic breaking news. Horrific scene outside of Buffalo, New York, 49 people dead after a Continental connection Flight 3407 slammed into a home around 10:20 p.m. Eastern in a little town of Clarence Center, New York. It's about six miles northeast of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

We're getting all kinds of dramatic video from the scene as well. Here's a look at first responders at the site last night. Officials say the house that the plane slammed into was destroyed. And you don't really have to get official confirmation of that. You just need to look at the pictures.

One man inside was killed. Two other occupants of the home, the man's wife and their daughter, did manage to escape with minor injuries but they are being treated at a nearby hospital.

The plane burst into a ball of flames. One resident nearby says the crash felt like a mini earthquake. And you can see here the only recognizable part of the aircraft after the crash appears to be the tail section.

It was a 74-seat turboprop plane carrying 44 passengers and four crew members. As we said, no one survived. Reports say there was a strong smell of jet fuel as you could imagine. The weather at the time of the crash was icy and snowy. Upstate New York also experiencing extremely windy conditions but it's unclear at this point if weather was a contributing factor to the crash.

Of course there's plenty that we still don't know about what may have contributed to the crash including what, if any, role the weather conditions played. CNN's Rob Marciano is following that part of the story for us this morning. He's got some new information to impart.

Rob, what do you got?

MARCIANO: Well, John, we've been showing you the radar as it looked like last night and we'll do that again to start things off and we're going to break down a cross-section of the atmosphere and some analysis that some of the products that we have here in the CNN weather center have done to highlight the icing situation. All right, these are the radar images coupled with the wind data from about 8:00 last night to around 1:00 in the morning. Notice that the precipitation goes from a blue, pink and white to all white, meaning that we go from rain and freezing rain and icy snow mixture to all snow by the time 1:00 comes around so the atmosphere is influx. It's transforming from a warmer atmosphere to a colder one, as this cold front came through.

So what does that look like at around 7:00, 8:00 last night, when the Buffalo airport -- our National Weather Service throws up their weather balloons. Now kind of cut through the clutter here, this is a cross-section of the atmosphere. What you're looking at over here is temperature and dew point as that weather balloon launches vertically into the atmosphere.

What I want to you look at are these colors over here and what this product does is it analyzes one thing in the pink, this is turbulence. And any time you see one of these bars go all the way to the pink line, that's severe turbulence so up and down the atmosphere we've got moderate to severe turbulence. The lower part of this cross section is where that plane was flying.

We lost radar contact with the plane at about 5,300 feet so that is in this part of the atmosphere. The gray area here is clouds. Obviously they're in all clouds. A couple of things that I also found interesting for aviation purposes, one is this dark green. This is called an area where they think carburetor ice is likely to build and that's something that's a little bit foreign to me but apparently pilots would understand that.

It's not a good thing, to say the least, and then this lighter green area, that's where rime ice is most likely to build up, and that is also in the 5,000-foot below area to be a moderate to severe level potential for rime ice to build up.

So that's what we're looking at as far as what the atmosphere looked like last night, John, and basically, you know, when you get temperatures that close to freezing and that much humidity, and we're talking about relative humidity levels that were well over 75 percent, pretty much clouds throughout that layer of the atmosphere, you will get freezing to surfaces.

Obviously, planes have the capability to shed some of that ice and certainly when they're moving that helps as well, but if that plane was just standing still or like a car would be standing still on the ground, there would be ice accumulating in that sort of atmosphere.

One other -- we'll go back, Dave, if we could, to show this picture again because it's remarkable and it's certainly eerie. We'll zoom into the crash site and also highlight something that's -- some things that are around the crash site. We showed you the neighborhood earlier today, and we'll show you that again, as it was taken in a more tranquil time certainly during daylight hours probably in the late summer or early fall. Let's go to the Google Earth imagery and we'll show you exactly what I'm talking about. There's a field. As we go a little bit closer to Clarence Center, and again there -- this field up here, an open field, you know, that -- in an ideal situation, if you, you know, couldn't make the runway in a populated area that open field certainly would be something that, I'm sure, a pilot would be looking at as maybe a potential site for an emergency landing.

All right, this road obviously not meant for an emergency landing. This is the actual house we believe it to be when it was standing. Again, likely taken in the late summer or early fall. A beautiful home with a well manicured lawn and well-kept outside, obviously, an older home, probably '30s, '40s or '50s, built there in a well-established neighborhood.

A quieter time back there, John, and those pictures certainly make you think that -- make you hope that it was a couple days ago when this thing didn't happen. It even has the American flag there flying on the porch. Certainly a Norman Rockwell-like scene.

ROBERTS: And as Harry Scull, the photographer from the "Buffalo News," was telling us earlier this is sort of the original part of Clarence Center. These are the people who founded the town.

And, Rob, just going back to what you were talking about with the icing, we've got transcripts and we also have tapes of communications between air traffic control and other planes in the area. We're getting the sound ingested into our system so we can play it for you.

But just to read a couple of the transcripts, air traffic control reaching out to Delta Airlines Flight 1998. Do you have any icing where you're at? Delta 1998 says, we picked it up on the way down. I don't think we're building anymore here but about 6,500 feet down to about 3,500. Another communication with an aircraft, are you getting any kind of icing or anything there, another pilot doesn't appear to be building. We got about a half an inch, a quarter of an inch on descend that has remained with us the whole time.

And then they're talking to a US Airways flight, Cactus 1452, we've been picking up ice here for oh about the last 10 minutes. We've been getting ice from about 10 to 20 miles south of the airport. The air traffic controller says Cactus 1452 OK, if you could, let me know when you get out of the ice. Aircraft coming up from the south reporting that earlier.

So it does sound like there was favorable conditions for the formation of ice on the wings there, Rob. And that's the first thing that the NTSB will be looking into, I'm sure, when they get on the ground.

Rob Marciano, thanks so much. We'll keep checking back with you. Great information this morning. Appreciate it.

CHETRY: Yes, and in just a couple of minutes we're going to hear from our aviation expert who's with us, John Lucich, about the new information regarding the formation of ice. But right now we want to get to Dave Bissonnette. He is the emergency coordinator for the town of Clarence. He is actually on the scene right now doing a walk- through.

David, thanks for joining us this morning.

DAVID BISSONNETTE, EMERGENCY COORDINATOR, TOWN OF CLARENCE: Good morning.

CHETRY: I listened to you as you gave our briefing at 4:00 a.m., several hours, about three hours ago and at that time, you talked about how no one's going to be coming down to this scene, that on the ground, the site is still too hot. Give us an update on what's going on there.

BISSONNETTE: Well, we still have a very hot scene of the fire, the fuselage is still, got a lot of heat in it. It's going to be quite some time before we get it cooled down to the point where we can start a detailed investigation. We've got a lot of help on the scene here, volunteer firefighters, law enforcement from all areas. We've got a lot of help through this very difficult time.

CHETRY: A difficult time, no doubt, and we've been hearing from some of the people living in that vicinity today, and they paint a very, very grim picture as well of what's going on.

Some of the bright spots, though, the fact that the emergency responders, the nine volunteer fire companies as well as others from the area were able to get out there, put this huge fire out without anyone else getting injured. We did hear, though, that two firefighters were taken in for smoke inhalation and that the two people in the home also being treated in the hospital.

Do you have any update on the conditions on the ground?

BISSONNETTE: Those injured firefighters and law enforcement folks are all doing very well. They were minor injuries. We were very fortunate that this tragedy wasn't any more than it had to be. We have excellent, very well-trained folks on site here.

I don't know what else to tell you other than that we're working through, looking forward to daybreak here so we can do a better size- up of what we have ahead of us.

CHETRY: A couple of other...

BISSONNETTE: Investigators from Washington, D.C. are due in here at about 6:00 a.m., and we'll be starting with will likely be multiple-day-type operation.

CHETRY: Right, I believe that we last heard they were leaving D.C. en route to Buffalo at 6:00 a.m. so they should be getting there in the next hour or so. I wanted to ask you, though, about the situation. You had said earlier that the county would be taking the lead on this Cheektowaga coordinating the efforts in this area.

Are you hopefully you'll be able to recover both the flight cockpit recorder, the voice data recorder and the flight data recorder?

BISSONNETTE: Well, clearly that's the big piece of information that everybody is looking for, so we can understand how and why this happened. The county of Erie in conjunction with the state and federal people are working with my town and other resources were working jointly. We will continue to work toward the needs of our residents while the county state and federal folks work on other root causes of accident.

CHETRY: Twelve other homes in the area were said to be evacuated. Do you know how long until people are able to return if they did have to leave?

BISSONNETTE: We evacuated about a dozen homes, purely precautionary, but at the same time we need to maintain the integrity of this site. Every clue, all the information that's here, we need to keep undisturbed and as accurate as possible so we can learn what happened here tonight.

CHETRY: All right, and where should people go for more information if they need to inquire about friends, loved ones or they're in that area and need to know what they're, you know, to do?

BISSONNETTE: We are publishing a number, numbers for family, and then for residents inquiring on what the limitations are for that immediate area. The area is cordoned off, under state police control, and it will be strictly enforced for the near future.

CHETRY: All right, David Bissonnette, I know you have a long day ahead of you and probably several long days. I want to thank you for taking some time out to update us and our viewers on what's going on there. Thank you.

BISSONNETTE: You're very welcome. Happy to help.

ROBERTS: We want to go on camera to Clarence Center. That's where freelance reporter Lisa Scott is this morning. She's got herself set up there.

And, Lisa, just kind of give us the lay of the land, where are you, what's happening where you are.

SCOTT: We are in front of Clarence town hall, which has been the command center overnight since the plane crashed. There's dozens of different officials inside from local, state, FBI, nine different fire agencies. We are about three miles away from the scene. The media is being kept away from the scene because it is still so dangerous and firefighters are apparently still out there fighting that fire.

They're actually going to be moving the command center because this is the town hall and the business of the day will be starting soon so we are going to be going to the fire training center but we are anticipating another press conference happening between 8:00 or 9:00 this morning to hopefully get some more information.

We are told that family members of those on board that flight are also being held at a senior citizens center locally and we're being told also that the Red Cross is on the scene for those neighbors in -- near that house who were evacuated. The public's being asked to stay away from that area. There's a mild perimeter around the scene and, of course, you know, officials don't want folks driving out there, but the thing, as you talk with the many different police officers and officials who are out here, everybody is just astounded that only one house was hit.

It's truly a devastating tragedy with 49 people dead, but it's still just unbelievable that the plane came down in such a way that it did not take out the entire neighborhood. Nothing like this has ever happened in western New York before and this is certainly something that everybody will be talking about today.

Back to you.

ROBERTS: Lisa Scott, watching the situation for us on the ground there in Clarence Center.

Lisa, thanks. Good to see you on camera. We'll get back to you a little bit later on and we'll take a short break and we'll be back right after this.

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