Flight data recorder found

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, NOV. 12. A senior official of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said here today that as per the available information the crash of the American Airlines plane was ``an accident''.

The NTSB said here that the Flight Data Recorder had been recovered and a search was on for the Cockpit Voice Recorder.

The Federal Government has put the NTSB as the lead investigating agency, suggesting that it was leaning on the theory that a mechanical fault had caused the Flight 587 to go down barely four minutes after takeoff from the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. But the Federal Bureau of Investigation is also involved in the investigations.

At the White House, the spokesman said there was no conclusive evidence of any terrorist involvement in the crash. But the Bush administration is not ruling anything ``in or out''.

Terrorism is one angle that is being pursued seriously but the authorities are inclined to discount this theory. Investigators are looking closely at the mechanical aspect - whether an engine could have dislodged itself from the plane and in the process set the fuel on fire. Experts are taking the view that this could explain the ``explosion'' that some eye witnesses have talked about.

Parts of the burning engine are reported to have landed on a gasoline station, setting off a fire around an eight-block area. Several residential units suffered extensive damage but there is no word on casualties on the ground.

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Section  : International
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