http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/nyregion/13crash.html?_r=1&hpFebruary 13, 2009
49 Killed After Plane Crashes Into House Near Buffalo
By MATTHEW L. WALD and TRYMAINE LEE
A Continental Express flight from Newark to Buffalo crashed into a house about four to six miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Thursday night, killing 49 people, officials said.
The plane carried 44 passengers and a crew of 4, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Ted Lopatkiewicz, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said at midnight that he did not know if there were any survivors on the plane. The Erie County executive, Chris Collins, later said at a news conference that 49 people, including one on the ground, were killed.
Mr. Collins said the plane, Continental Airlines Flight 3407, crashed about 10:20, five minutes before it was due to land. The house it crashed into was still engulfed in flames at 12:30 a.m., and Mr. Collins said that about 12 houses were evacuated and a limited state of emergency was declared.
Trooper John Manthey of the New York State Police said the plane went down in the hamlet of Clarence Center.
?It was just like a huge great big crash, a boom,? said Sandra Baker, who lives two blocks from the site of the crash on Railroad Street.
Both of her sons, volunteer firefighters, were at the scene.
?There was this banging sound? before the crash, she said. Then she said there was a boom, then a dark cloud and flames and the acrid smell of fuel and fire wafting through the air.
She said she believed the two people who lived in the home where the plane crashed made it out safely.
Another woman who lives nearby described the sound before the crash as ?a loud roar over my house.?
?It was like the whole house shook,? said the woman, Jennifer Clark, who also lives on Railroad Street. ?Then there was silence.?
Ms. Clark said she looked out of her window and saw a ball of flames rising into the sky.
She woke up her husband and said, ?I think a plane just crashed.?
?I don?t know,? she said. ?I feel bad for the people on the plane and their families. I feel bad for the firemen who have to recover the remains of those poor people.?
Ms. Baker described the town as ?small town U.S.A,? a place that will reel from what she was sure would be the biggest tragedy the town has ever seen.
The plane went down in light snow, Mr. Lopatkiewicz said.
A joint investigation was being done by the State Police, the Erie County Sheriff?s Office and the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. A safety board team of investigators will arrive in Buffalo on Friday morning, he said.
The plane was a De Havilland DHC-8-400 Dash 8, a 74-seat twin-engine turboprop, operated by Colgan Airways, a feeder airline for Continental.
Colgan also flies as a feeder for US Airways and United Airlines. Colgan?s Web site said the airline operates 51 turboprops.
The last fatal crash involving a scheduled carrier in the United States was a ComAir regional jet in Lexington, Ky., in August 2006. The crew picked a too-short runway for takeoff; 47 passengers and 2 of the 3 crew members were killed.
Colgan is owned by Pinnacle Airlines Corporation, based in Memphis.
Micheline Maynard contributed reporting.
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