Return to Transcripts main page

Breaking News

Chairman of American Airlines Gives More Information on Plane

Aired November 12, 2001 - 12:57   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Al Becker, a spokesman for American Airlines. Literally bombarded with questions from reporters, understandably, but American Airlines reeling, this morning, this afternoon, the third American Airlines plane to go down, of course in the last two months and a day. Of course we know two planes went down on September the 11th. A result of terror. Terror -- attacks, and this plane this morning went down in Queens, New York, just literally 2 or 3 minutes after taking off from JFK Airport near New York City.

Just quickly to recap, John Carty, the chairman of American Airlines, saying at this point, there is no indication of a cause, and then Al Becker, we just heard the head of the corporate communications for American Airlines, giving us a little more information about the airplane. He said it's a Airbus A-300-600. He said it's one of 35 in the American Airlines fleet, built in France, that it was entered into service new with American Airlines in July of 1988. That makes it 13 years in service, and he discussed it's maintenance background, talked about series of major maintenance steps that had been taken, and clearly, beyond that, they do not have much more they can tell us at this point.

We are waiting for a National Transportation Safety Board briefing that should be coming up shortly.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com