Apparently another plane has crashed in New York...

[Funkodrom]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/storytemp...035003,00.html

[Resource Consumer]

Oh dear. I can't think of anything else to say.

There is no evidence yet that it is terrorism and it could just be a tragic accident but, in the current climate, you'd think it could be likely.

[Funkodrom]

Yeah. Same time of day as the WTC attacks as well.

[Venom]

Yep. They've starting shutting down ariports as well.

[Funkodrom]

The Dow has dropped 200 points.

[Resource Consumer]

Good point. Also that plane flightplans would normally (and especially these days) take them away from populated areas. And the same city. Too much of a coincidence.

[Funkodrom]

Finally loaded the BBC story, not much info...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/wor...00/1651984.stm

(Reposting here 'cause BBC server is so busy at the moment)

An American Airlines flight on its way to John F Kennedy airport has crashed in New York.
At least four buildings in the Rockaway Beach area of the city's borough of Queens are on fire.

It is not known why the aircraft crashed or how many people were on board, or in the buildings now ablaze.

New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani is on his way to the crash site and has called a level one alert.

There is no indication at the moment that the crash is anything other than an accident.

The weather was crystal clear when the plane - thought to be a Boeing 767 - went down.

Both towers of the World Trade Center in New York were destroyed on 11 September after 767s were flown into them.

All three airports serving New York - JFK, Newark and La Guardia - are now closed.

The Dow index dropped 200 points on hearing the news.

[Venom]

Originally posted by MikeH
The Dow has dropped 200 points.

Nothing like a good panic to start the week

[Resource Consumer]

The BBC seem to have learned from Sep 11 and dropped their site into low graphics mode to handle the traffic. Good old British high tech ingenuity.

[Funkodrom]

It's a good idea.

[Roland]

Damn.

If this is an accident the timing, location and impact would indeed be bizarre.
I can't help it, this smells of an attack. If the story about a part of the plane coming off is correct, one would suspect a bomb.

[Funkodrom]

Yeah, it does sound that way.

[Roland]

Stinks. Veteran's day in the US, and I think the UN general assembly still under way. And guess who recently identified the UN as an enemy... but that's not a direct link, ok.

I hate that irresistable urge to speculate in the face of very little information.

[Venom]

The really weird part is that many of the firefighters who died at the WTC lived in the area where the plane crashed.

[Funkodrom]

[Venom]

Talk about fate being against you.

I read on some site where an eye witness reported that an engine from the plane broke off and landed near his house.

[Funkodrom]

I can't get on any news site at the moment.

[Venom]

That's because you suck.

[Funkodrom]

The internet sucks.

[Venom]

I've had success with the links posted over at ACOL.

I'm too lazy to repost them here.

[Venom]

Drudge is also available.

[Funkodrom]

I can't get onto ACOL. What's drudge?

[Venom]

http://www.drudgereport.com

[Funkodrom]

Got onto ACOL that time.`couldn't load Drudgereport. The Internet is totally shagged.

[Venom]

Hmmm. The only site I can't get to is cnn.com

[Funkodrom]

Funny, I can get to europe.cnn.com

[Venom]

I thin your network is fucked.

[Funkodrom]

Nope, this happens when some major news story happens. The link to the US gets really, really erratic.

[Venom]

From usatoday.com

NEW YORK (AP) — An American Airlines jetliner on its way to the Dominican Republic crashed moments after takeoff Monday in a residential neighborhood five miles from Kennedy Airport, authorities said. There was no immediate word on deaths or injuries.

Bush administration officials say the FBI believes there was an explosion aboard the plane and they're investigating its source.

The city was put on high alert, Mayor Rudy Giuliani said. Fighter jets were seen flying over the area.

Bill Schumann of the Federal Aviation Administration said there was no immediate indication of what caused the crash, which came two months after terrorists in two hijacked airliners brought down the World Trade Center.

All metropolitan area airports — Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J. — were closed after the crash, which took place in the Rockaway section of Queens. The United Nations was partially locked down.

In Washington, President Bush met with advisers, seeking details of the crash.

Flight 587, an Airbus A300 that can hold 275 people, went down shortly after 9 a.m in the waterfront neighborhood 15 miles from Manhattan, setting buildings on fire. A plume of thick, black smoke could be seen miles away.

There was no immediate word from American on the number of people aboard the plane. CNN said 255 people were aboard.

In Washington, a senior administration official said that no threats against airplanes had been received and that the pilot of Flight 587 reported no trouble before the crash.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said intelligence agencies, the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration were reviewing all recent intelligence for any signs that terrorism was involved, but an hour after the crash there was no evidence pointing to an attack.

"They are comparing information to see if it provides any insight into what transpired. At this point, there's no indication of a terrorist attack, but it certainly can't be ruled out in the current environment," the official said.

At the Pentagon two defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no additional fighters had been dispatched to the New York area and that the entire matter was being handled by the FAA as a domestic disaster with no apparent military implications.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to investigate.

Giuliani canceled his morning events and headed to the scene, where he said: "People should remain calm. We're just being tested one more time and we're going pass this test too."

"Now we should focus all our efforts on finding survivors," Giuliani said.

Asked what he thought when he heard about the crash, he said: "Oh my God,' that's the first thing what went into my mind, 'Oh my God,' and I just passed a church in which I had been to, I think, 10 funerals. Rockaway was particularly hard hit in proportion to the people we lost."

Triage centers were set up a high school and an elementary school, both of which were closed for the Veterans Day holiday.

Planes were being diverted to other airports, and Delta Air Lines spokeswoman Peggy Estes said the airline was working to account for all its planes.

The plane had been scheduled to leave at 8 a.m. and arrive in Santo Domingo at 12:48 p.m.

One witness reported debris falling from sky and told the Fox News Channel four homes were on fire.

"All of the sudden, I see an engine fall off, and it went to the side, and in 10, 15 seconds it went down," witness Kevin O'Rourke told WABC-TV. "An engine fell off."

Another witness, John Maroney, 47, said the engine plummeted onto a Texaco station near his house, and pieces of plane were a couple of blocks away.

"That's probably what shook up up from our beds. The whole house jumped," he said. "We were all out there with fire extinguishers and hoses, but we couldn't do much."

Witness Phyllis Paul said she heard the plane's egine. "It was very, very loud. Because of what happened Sept. 11, it gave me a chill," she told CNN. "It was getting louder and louder and I looked out the window. I saw a piece of metal falling from the sky."

The World Trade Center was destroyed by two Boeing 767s hijacked out of Boston's Logan Airport. One of the planes was operated by American, the other by United.

Airbus said American Airlines has a fleet of 35 A300s.

[Funkodrom]

Listening to Radio 5 at the moment on the 'net.

They are talking at the moment about the fact that the security at US airports is still pretty crap and speculating like mad.

[Venom]

Security is a little better I think. I dropped my friend off at the airport last night and it took him over an hour to get through security.

They inspected every electronic device that he had and searched all his bags by hand.

[Funkodrom]

They were saying it's better but not right yet... also now they keep saying they don't know whether it was an attack although they are saying what we've been saying that it's a massive coincidence.

[Venom]

Reality is stranger than fiction.

[Funkodrom]

Lost my radio link now.

[Venom]

Apparently we need some more fiber lines across the ocean.

[Funkodrom]

I think you are right.

[Venom]

It will be awhile before any hard information is to be had.

Unless more planes start dropping today.

[Funkodrom]

Yeah, you are right. All the frantic speculation and stuff, it's compulsive. I can't help watching / listening to it.

[Venom]

As usual it's all about the black box.

[Funkodrom]

Now I have live BBC TV on my PC

Looks pretty nastly.

[Funkodrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/live/now2.ram