Plane crash in New York state kills 50

Reuters - 49 minutes ago

By Gary Wiepert

BUFFALO, New York - A passenger plane crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York, in snowy weather on Thursday night and burst into flames, killing 50 people.

The 74-seat commuter plane lost contact with air traffic controllers and went down a few miles before the runway at the Buffalo airport, authorities said.

Federal investigators were searching the crash site in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence Centre on Friday. Other pilots in the area were concerned about icing in the wet, cold weather, control tower recordings showed.

Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, was travelling to Buffalo from Newark, New Jersey. Colgan, a unit of Pinnacle Airlines, said the plane was a Dash 8 Q400 made by Canada's Bombardier Inc.

All 49 people on board were killed. One person died in the house but two others escaped with only minor injuries.

The death toll on the plane was raised from 48 -- 44 passengers and four crew -- after reports an off-duty pilot was also on board, CNN said.

There was no sign of a terrorist connection to the crash at about 10:20 p.m. on Thursday, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Recordings played on U.S. television networks showed the control tower in Buffalo lost contact with the plane as it was making its approach. There was no distress signal.

Witnesses said the plane came out of the sky in a nosedive before erupting in a fireball when it hit the house.

"I could hear what sounded like a high-pitched sound -- a tube with air rushing through it," resident Keith Burtis told CNN. "You could feel the ground shake."

ONLY THE TAIL

"It's remarkable that it only took one house, as devastating as it was," said Dave Bissonette, emergency coordinator for the town of Clarence. "The only recognizable piece of the plane left is the tail."

Bissonette said weather conditions were not unusual for that part of upstate New York at this time of year -- snow, 32 degrees F and moderate wind.

Commercial aircraft are equipped with de-icing systems, but safety experts say even a small buildup of ice on the wings can affect aerodynamics.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he was "deeply saddened" by the accident and Continental Airlines chief executive Larry Kellner extended sympathies to victims' families.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators will search for flight data and cockpit voice recorders for clues to what caused the crash.

The control tower recordings showed an air traffic controller calling in vain for the flight to respond and then asking for help to find out what happened to it.

"This is ground communication. We need to talk to someone at least five miles northeast ... either state police or sheriff's department. We need to find out if anything is on the ground," he said.

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

Another voice said: "All I can tell you is the aircraft was over the marker and we're not talking to them now."

The controller then told other planes the Dash 8 "didn't make the airport."

SAFE PERIOD

It was the first deadly U.S. airline accident since August 2006, when a similar number of people were killed when a Comair jet crashed on takeoff in Kentucky.

The U.S. airline industry has recorded its safest period overall since 2001, flying more than 500 million people annually with three fatal crashes -- all involving smaller regional carriers, not major airlines.

Thursday's disaster came less than a month after the successful crash landing of a US Airways jetliner on the Hudson River in New York City.

All 155 people on board survived after the plane hit birds and pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger brought it down on the river. Passengers and crew were rescued by ferry boats.

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*May the victim rest in peace*
*Amitabha*