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CNN Live At Daybreak

At Least 265 Killed When Plane Crashes in Queens

Aired November 13, 2001 - 05:00   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: New York, a new tragedy -- at least 265 people are killed when a plane crashes in Queens. So far, there is no indication it was an act of terrorism.

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UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: My guess, I guess, you know, until I know differently, my initial reaction was that it was the terrorists and it was another one. We were so close to the World Trade Center. We've lost probably about 95 people here on the peninsula, about 77 that were firefighters. So we've been mourning for the past two months and then to have this, it was the first thing that came to my mind.

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HARRIS: And overseas, Kabul clears out. The Taliban forces leave the Afghan capital, but no one says it's over just yet.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we should remember that the strategic objective is the destruction of bin Laden, the network of bin Laden in the country and the Taliban government that supported him. So if he's headed west, that's where we're headed as well.

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HARRIS: Good morning. It is Tuesday, November 13. And from the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Leon Harris.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Thanks so much for joining us.

HARRIS: It's one of those days, we've got lots of things to cover this morning. It's one of those days we've got two major news stories of significance to report.

Overseas, the Northern Alliance has surrounded the capital city of Kabul as the Taliban forces inside there begin to pull out.

PHILLIPS: And in New York and in the Dominican Republic, hundreds of families are devastated by the crash of an American Airlines jet. We begin with the latest developments in that story.

Investigators say so far all indications are that yesterday's crash in New York was an accident. The crash and fire killed at least 265 people. The voice recorder from Flight 587 is being analyzed by investigators right now in Washington. The NTSB says all communications from the cockpit were normal before the crash. The plane's flight data recorder has not yet been found. Flight 587 was headed for the Dominican Republic when it crashed and friends and relatives crowded in that airport in Santo Domingo and grieved openly when news came that there were no survivors.

President Bush is expressing his sympathy following the crash. He says the people of New York have suffered, but they are strong enough to overcome this tragedy.

HARRIS: You know, in the first moments, first hours that followed the crash, it was almost impossible not to wonder if this was the work of terrorists once again. There were just so few details at the time. Well, that is not the case this morning.

Here's what we know now. As of late last night, rescue workers had recovered 265 bodies. There were 260 people aboard Flight 587 but keep in mind that people on the ground were apparently killed, as well. The mayor's office tells us at least six people are missing from the ground.

It was an Air Bus 8300 that crashed. The most recent model went into service 15 years ago. This air bus took off from Kennedy Airport at 9:14 a.m. Eastern time. It was 74 minutes late. It was bound for Santo Domingo, but it disappeared from radar only three minutes after takeoff.

CNN's Kathleen Koch picks up the story from there.

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KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After examining wreckage and the cockpit voice recorder, investigators say the evidence points in one direction.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of the early indications we have all point in the direction of this being an accident. No evidence of criminal activity. I think one of the key things, Lisa, that you might bear in mind is that there are only the voices on the cockpit voice recorder of the pilot and co-pilot.

KOCH: The NTSB says the co-pilot was at the controls, a normal practice, as the plane took off at 9:14 a.m. There was no distress call and less than two minutes later, debris began raining down.

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: I see like the wing and the engine separate from the plane. It tilt to the left and then it nose dived.

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: The left engine coming away from the plane.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You actually saw it separate?

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: Yes, I saw it coming away from the plane and I saw a lot of debris coming from behind it.

KOCH: The plane's vertical stabilizer was found in Jamaica Bay, large engine parts at a Texaco gas station and further away, more engine parts near a family's home, part of the main debris field covering a 10 block area. A Transportation Department official tells CNN investigators are now focusing on a "catastrophic engine event" as a likely cause of the crash, though investigators say aircraft can fly even if an engine drops off or comes apart.

JIM HALL, FORMER NTSB CHAIRMAN: The aircraft, of course, is designed to perform even during the takeoff sequence only on one engine. If there was an explosion that took the systems of the aircraft out, you know, that obviously could have prevented the performance of either engine.

KOCH: Catastrophic failures of similar engines have been implicated in previous fatal airline accidents. The American Airlines Air Bus 8300 was 13 years old and had one engine that was coming due for a major overhaul. Aviation experts say investigators will carefully scrutinize its maintenance history. Both the FAA and the NTSB had warned airlines that cracks in the same make of engine could cause them to break apart and lead to a plane crash.

MARION BLAKEY, NTSB CHAIRMAN: They will go back through every maintenance procedure that was done on this aircraft, on these engines, to see that every recommendation that every air worthiness directive, that every procedure that should have been done on these engines was done.

KOCH (on camera): There's no word on whether American Airlines or other air carriers have begun checking the other Air Bus 8300s in their fleets for potential problems.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

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PHILLIPS: The plane that crashed was an 8300 Air Bus. That type of plane has been involved in at least six fatal crashes in the last 13 years. The most recent crash was in February of 1998 in Taipei, Taiwan. 8300s have also crashed in Indonesia, Japan, Nepal and Iran. The 8300 first went into service in 1974. It's a wide bodied jet built in Europe and it can carry 266 people.

HARRIS: Well, as word of this crash made it to Santo Domingo, about 200 family, friends and relatives got together and paced away the hours in an area set aside from them at the Los Americas International Airport.

And CNN's John Zarrella has what happened next with that.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The families of the victims who had gathered here at the International Airport throughout the day had all gone home by nightfall. President Mejia has declared the next three days, days of mourning. Flags will be at half staff. A United Airlines team of specialists arrived late this evening, specialists who deal with the trauma faced by the families of these victims. They are here for grief counseling and whatever other services they can lend to the people.

The process now, according to government officials, is that a team of government officials will travel to New York City to try and handle some of the, what is going on on that end in the United States. Then there will be the process of returning the bodies, the 175 plus bodies back here to the Dominican Republic. That is said to be the next order of business, to work out the logistics for that to be arranged so that all of the family members' bodies can be returned here to the Dominican Republic.

It is a very difficult time here. It is really a national tragedy. So many people have lost their lives and so many people's relatives here in the Dominican Republic now grieving.

John Zarrella, CNN, Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic.

HARRIS: Now, if you fear that someone in your family may have been on American Airlines Flight 587, there are a couple of ways that you can get some more information. The airline has set up this 800 number for you, 1-800-245-0999. Now, that number is for family members only. So please bear in mind it's only for the victims' families here. Now, if you're not a family member, try this one. Pull up American Airlines' Web site. It's amrcorp.com. There you'll find a partial list of passengers and crew members that were on the plane.

Now, the eyewitness accounts of what happened are stories that you'll never forget. Log onto cnn.com. There you're going to find some sights and sounds from the crash scene with complete coverage of the Flight 587 story. For AOL users, the keyword there, of course, is CNN.

PHILLIPS: Well, we're going to update you on the latest from the many fronts in the war against the Taliban in just a minute, after a break, how the Northern Alliance closed in on Kabul and what the Taliban's next move might be.

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