Washington, November 12
An American Airlines passenger jet bound for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republican crashed shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy Airport on Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
FAA spokesman William Shumann said American Airlines Flight 587 crashed 5 miles from the airport in a residential area of Rockaway, in the Queens Borough of New York City.
He had no information on how many passengers were aboard the wide-body Airbus A-300 twin engine passenger, but said the A-300 plane could carry as many as 275 persons, depending on its seating configuration. CNN reported the aircraft had 246 persons aboard, including nine crew members.
The crash came almost exactly two months after two hijacked passenger jets crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, but aviation officials said they had no information on the possible cause of Monday’s crash.
Shumann said Kennedy Airport had closed after the crash, but he had no information on any additional measures taken to ground airplanes around the country, as was down after the September 11 hijacking attacks on New York and Washington.
“We have no information as to the possible cause of the crash,” Shumann told reporters.
He said no decisions had been made on grounding other planes or closing other airports. “All options are open at this time. I’m not ruling out anything at this time, but we have made no decision,” Shumann said.
Reuters
