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American Morning

Investigation into Crash of Flight 587 Begins in Earnest

Aired November 13, 2001 - 10:22   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, want to shifting our attention now to the latest on the crash of American Airlines Flight 587. It was about this time yesterday, again, when the skies over Queens, New York were blackened by smoke.

And CNN's Jason Carroll among the first reporters to arrive on the scene. And what a scene it was indeed. Jason, good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Bill. We've changed positions somewhat. We're a little closer to the actual site of the crash. Once you take a look behind me, you can see that there are still a number of emergency crews that are out here.

At this point, most of the bodies have been recovered. The focus really, now, is on the investigation, and the cleanup of the neighborhood. The landscape of this neighborhood, as you know, tragically changed yesterday at about 9:17 a.m. That's when the American Airlines Airbus 300 disappeared from radar. Witnesses say they heard some sort of a loud noise. One witness telling me yesterday morning that, she said, she thought it sounded like a sonic boom, in fact she thought it was perhaps the Concord taking off from JFK Airport, which is located about five miles from here.

Witnesses went outside, they saw the plane, it was on fire. It broke apart, and then it crashed into the neighborhood. Nearly a dozen homes were damaged. Four have been destroyed.

Bill, as you know, this is a neighborhood that was already in mourning. Some 60 people who lived here in this neighborhood were killed in the World Trade Center disaster.

This morning, CNN spoke to Patrick Fitzgerald. His son worked at Cantor-Fitzgerald, and he died in the World Trade Center disaster. And this morning, he says, his prayers are with the families of the crash victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK SULLIVAN, RETIRED POLICE OFFICER: My thoughts went to the survivors. The surviving families, more than survivors. Because you could tell by the flames and fire that -- nobody was going to walk away from this particular crash. So my -- I started to realize what those families were going to experience, because I've been going through that experience. And it's very, very difficult. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: That's Patrick Sullivan there. Also, want to point out that the Coast Guard has been able to recover several portions of the plane in Jamaica Bay, including a section of the tail that you see there.

The NTSB has also recovered the cockpit voice recorder. That will certainly help them in this investigation. A team of some 100 investigators are going to be taking up this case. They're going to be checking out the engine. They'll be looking at the electrical system on the plane as well. They'll be out here interviewing witnesses trying to get some more information.

But at this point, early evidence seems to suggest this was an accident. Bill?

HEMMER: ...Carroll, in Queens this morning. Jason, thanks. For more on the crash of that airline, Flight 587, log on to CNN.com. And among the features you'll find there is a partial victims list. We also invite you to share your thoughts on our message board. AOL Keyword there is CNN.

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