Many Saw Flight 587 On Fire Before Crash

New York Daily News ^ | Jun. 5, 2002 | WARREN WOODBERRY Jr.

[aristeides]

By WARREN WOODBERRY Jr.
Daily News Staff Writer

More than 180 people reported seeing American Airlines Flight 587 on fire before it slammed into the Rockaways after takeoff from Kennedy Airport last fall, according to a new report.

The National Transportation Safety Board says 181 witnesses — 52% of the 349 interviewed — said they saw the jet on fire before it plunged into the Belle Harbor, Queens, neighborhood on the morning of Nov. 12. Twenty-two percent interviewed reported seeing flames near the plane's fuselage.

Other witnesses reported seeing fire on an engine or wing of the Airbus A300-600 jet.

The findings were released yesterday as investigators continue to examine why the jet broke a part in midair and crashed, killing all 260 people onoard and five on the ground.

The report said that 8% of witnesses interviewed saw an explosion; 20% reported seeing no fire at all; 22% observed smoke, and 20% said they saw no smoke at all.

Also, 74% of witnesses reported seeing the plane descend; 57% said they saw something separate from the plane; 13% reported seeing the right wing, left wing or an unidentified wing separate, and 9% reported seeing no parts separate.

Tom Lynch of Belle Harbor was not among those interviewed by the safety board, but told the Daily News he saw the crash nonetheless.

"I saw the plane. It had a small contained explosion in the fuselage," Lynch said. "The explosion was probably the size of a small automobile. The plane continued to fly at the time of the explosion; there was no tail and the plane continued to fly."

Safety board spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said a public hearing on the crash will be convened in Washington in October.

[aristeides]

A lot of witnesses saw a missile hit TWA 800 too. Shoe bomb #1? Remember, it crashed when Bush and a bunch of other VIP's were at the UN, which bin Laden has indicated he hates.

[Intimidator]

This was not a terrorist attack. If it were the perpetrators would be dying to claim responsibility for it.

[Free the USA]

Bump list

[null and void]

I think the perps mave have smartened up a tiny bit since they saw what we did in Afghanistan.

They still want to kill us, destroy our country, trash our economy (in no particular order), but their hosts don't want the payback on their soil.

Especially now that we are out of the asprin factory bombing business, and are targeting them. It's PERSONAL now...

[aristeides]

Al Qaeda and bin Laden were not exactly prominent in claiming responsibility for the embassy bombings or the hold in the Cole.

[onedoug]

Uh-huh. Like Lockerbee. Oklahoma City. TWA 800. SwissAir. EgyptAir. 9/11....

[jlogajan]

A lot of witnesses saw a missile hit TWA 800 too.

18% of the flt587 witness saw the plane in a left turn. 18% of the flt587 witness saw the plane in a right turn.

Witnesses are wrong all the time.

[Cicero]

It's as easy as pie to invent the name of a new terrorist organization, if you want a bombing to be recognized as terrorism but don't want it to be credited to your own terrorist group. Both Muslim and radical terrorists have often done that in the past fifty years. But terrorism that isn't widely recognized as terrorism does no good from their point of view.

[aristeides]

Same story in NY Post: FLT. 587 WITNESSES: IT WAS ABLAZE IN SKY.

[aristeides]

I think from their point of view it does good. It kills us.

[RogerWilko]

If you're in front of the plane it's turning right to you, if you're behind the plane it's turning left or vice versa! It all depends on where they were standing when they saw it, that could explain that!

[Tymesup]

bump