Plane Crashes In New York State Killing 50

Plane Crashes In New York State Killing 5A commuter plane suddenly nosedived and crashed into a house in snowy western New York state late on Thursday, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground as it burst into a fireball.

Speculation immediately focused on the weather as other pilots in the area reported ice buildup on their wings, but investigators cautioned on Friday that it was premature to determine a cause.

Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, was travelling to Buffalo from Newark, New Jersey. Colgan is a unit of Pinnacle Airlines.

The 74-seat plane -- a Dash 8 Q400 turboprop made by Canada's Bombardier -- lost contact with air traffic controllers and went down at about 10:20 pm EST on Thursday (0320 GMT on Friday) a few miles before the runway at Buffalo Airport, authorities said.

It was the third fatal crash since 2003 for Pinnacle and its Colgan unit, according to safety records. The two previous involved flights that were not carrying passengers, resulting in four crew deaths.

Bombardier said it was the first fatal crash involving that type of plane.

Only the tail section of the plane appeared intact, sticking out of a crater as firefighters worked into the day to put out a blaze fed by jet fuel and a natural gas leak.

"It's hard to make sense of it today but God hasn't left us. Two of three people that were in the home that the plane landed on miraculously escaped," New York Governor David Paterson told a news conference. "So we just take what little we can and move forward."

There were 44 passengers, four crew members and an off-duty pilot on board. Among the victims was Beverly Eckert, the widow of a victim of the September 11 attacks in 2001 and an advocate for survivors.

HIGH-PITCHED NOISE

Witnesses in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence Center said the plane came out of the sky in a steep dive.

"I could hear what sounded like a high-pitched sound -- a tube with air rushing through it," Keith Burtis told CNN. "You could feel the ground shake."

Other pilots in the area were concerned about icing, control tower recordings showed.

Commercial aircraft are equipped with de-icing systems but safety experts say even a small buildup of ice on the wings can affect aerodynamics.

Weather conditions were not unusual for that part of western New York at this time of year -- snow, 32 degrees F (0 degrees C) and moderate wind.

Federal investigators recovered the flight data and cockpit voice recorders on Friday and were sending them to Washington for analysis.

The plane was set to start its approach to land when air traffic controllers suddenly lost contact, control tower communications showed.

"It's remarkable that it only took one house," said Dave Bissonette, emergency coordinator for the town of Clarence. "It could have easily wiped out that whole neighbourhood."

Thursday's disaster came less than a month after the successful crash landing of a US Airways jet on the Hudson River in New York City.

All 155 people on board survived after the plane hit birds, taking out both engines, and pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger brought it down safely on the river.0