AA587 - Four Years Ago

[fly.mcs]

I'd like to start off by giving my condolences and my sympathy to the lost passengers as well as their families. It is a rough experience and I wish you the strength to overcome your grief if you have not already.

As most of you know, American Airlines flight 587 (JFK-SDQ) crashed in Rockaway shortly after takeoff from runway 31L on November 12, 2001 after the vertical stabilizer separated from the aircraft. This crash has been in my mind just as much as 9-11. I remember my family and myself were traveling to New Jersey, just about to get on the Verrazzano Bridge. The bridge was closed off when the crash occurred so we headed back to Brooklyn on the Belt Parkway. This is when we saw the smoke, giving us all that memory of 9-11. A friend of mine lives on the block where the plane crashed (Newport and 131st). She told me she was in her room when it happened, and as it occurred, her entire house shook and she heard a loud explosion. She went outside with her father and fire was everywhere; they even saw a dog walk out of the wreckage (from a house that was crushed) with burned paws. Something like that will never escape your memory.

Date: 12 November 2001
Airline: American Airlines
Aircraft Type: Airbus A300B4-605R
Aircraft Registration: N14053
Flight Number: 587
Route: JFK-SDQ
Fatalities: 260:260+5

Rest In Peace all passengers and crew aboard AA587.

[Tower Air]

I forgot about this one was JFK shut down or they diverted traffic to another runway?

[Matt Molnar]

I forgot about this one was JFK shut down or they diverted traffic to another runway?

It happened exactly 2 months and 1 day after 9/11, and with the WTC still burning, not only were JFK, LGA and EWR closed, fighter jets were scrambled immediately and the entire city was sealed off for a couple of hours. All the bridges and tunnels were closed and I think the subways were shut down briefly as well.

[lijk604]

JFK was closed down for a few hours, but after realizing that it was an accident and not terrorism, they open back again for business. It was an eerie sigh though, that close in time to 9/11.

[PhilDernerJr]

I was at Home Depot in Long Island city when an employee yelled out "They just shot down another plane. ****ing bastards!" Super professional thing to say, and not to mention that "another" would imply that terrorists shot down our planes before...which they haven't (people also use the term 'bomb" in reference in 9/11, but there wasn't any bombings).

I then walked out into the parking lot, which gives a good close view of the midtown skyline. I looked at the Empire State Building, and it really hit me that we are in some ****ty times. I looked, wondering if the skyline would yet again be changed in another attack....maybe even in a matter of minutes since we might have been in for a day of a big wave of attacks again.

I spent the next hours searching the skies and keeping my eyes open a little more than I "usually" was doing the previous two months until they confirmed that it was just a crash.

[mikephotos]

I was at home, just called in sick at work and saw the smoke in the sky. Tyler loves fire trucks so we took a drive down there expecting a car or house fire. We don't live that far from the scene. Turned out to be a lot worse...

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/201692/L/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/201691/L/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/201690/L/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/201689/L/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/201688/L/

Mike

[Matt Molnar]

Nice shots, Mike. I visited the scene the following summer and a couple of the charred houses were still standing. Across the street was an empty lot where some others had been removed, patrolled by an Argenbright security guard, probably in a side deal with American, who used Argenbright for their airport security before the TSA.

It's a shame what they're doing with the memorial. The city and the community leaders there want to put it on Beach 116th, over a mile away. Obviously the victims' families want it at the crash site. I get the impression that the residents would be much more hospitable had the victims been Jews heading for Tel Aviv or Irish going to Dublin rather than Dominicans en route to Santo Domingo.