An airliner with 48 people on board crashed into a home in the U.S. State of New York on Thursday evening, with 49 people reported to have been killed.
The crash occurred at around 10:20 p.m. Thursday in suburban Buffalo in northern New York State, nearly a seven-hour drive from New York City.
The 50-seat commuter plane, Continental Airlines Flight 3407, was flying from Newark to Buffalo when it crashed into a house in Clarence Center, local officials said at a news briefing on local television.
The officials said that there were 48 people on board, including 44 passengers and four crew members. The number of people on board was confirmed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Quoting "unconfirmed reports from a source at Buffalo Niagara International Airport," The Buffalo News reported on its website that 49 people, including all those aboard and a person on the ground, were killed in the crash.
In the latest update of the online report, a nurse at Erie County Medical Center said the hospital's second shift had been told to stay late to treat survivors but was sent home before midnight.
"There were no souls to bring in and treat," she was quoted as saying.
Some other local media also quoted New York State police as saying that all 48 aboard the plane were dead in the crash.
The local officials at the news briefing only confirmed "multiple fatalities," including one on the ground.
TV footage showed that massive fire broke out at the scene of crash, while firemen and police rushed to the scene for rescue.
The plane was still burning and the firemen refused to say if there were survivors, CNN reported.
The TV network also reported that two people who were not on the plane were taken to hospital.
Local officials said at the news briefing that the crash scene was still "very hot" and the firefighters were trying to keep damage to the minimum. So far no firefighter has been reported injured, they noted.
Twelve nearby homes have been evacuated, they added.
The crash is reportedly America's deadliest since a Comair commuter jet crashed in Lexington, Kentucky on Aug. 27, 2006. That crash also killed 49 people.
The National Transportation Safety Board in Washington has announced that it will send a team to Buffalo on Friday morning to probe the crash.
The Buffalo News quoted Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority spokesman C. Douglas Hartmayer as saying that crew members aboard the flight had reported mechanical problems as they approached Buffalo.
"I was told by the tower the plane simply dropped off the radar screen," Hartmayer told The Buffalo News.
(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2009)
