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Queen Elizabeth’s New Web Page

And it came to pass that Her Majesty the Queen of England decided her website needed a little juice-up. Thus, on the 13th day of February in the Year of our Lord 2009, she stood before her subjects and held aloft the royal remote control and behold, there appeared on a screen behind her what nobles and seers would come to call QE2.0, the new and improved official website of the British Monarchy.

No bottles of champagne were broken over laptops, but the man many credit with founding the internet, Tim Berners Lee, was present at the launch, which is not bad considering it’s mostly a glorified Facebook page. Why does Her Maj even need a website She doesn’t. As she explains on one of the crackling vintage radio addresses available on the royal YouTube channel, the point of being queen is to serve. It’s we regular folk who need the website. In her munificence, she provides it.

The new site has some pretty useful updates, including a calendar-map feature that shows what parts of England the queen and other members of the Royal family are scheduled to visit. Thereâ€™s an interactive menu: if you live in Merseyside and would like to see Prince William in the next couple of months, you can find out if he’ll be in the neighborhood.

There are individual pages for all of Queen Lizâ€™s children and grandchildren and several of her more distant rellies, yes, including Diana. The 10th most frequently asked question on the site is about the names of the Queen’s corgis . Less asked about are the Dorgis, a cross-breed of Dachshunds and Corgis . There’s a 700-word answer to the question about what the royal family’s surname is

As well as your regular down-home royals news, the site contains of lots of handy advice, such as what you might say to a member of the Worshipful Company of Vintners if you’re invited to watch the annual Swan Upping. And if you’re looking for decorating tips for a larger than average residence, you can take an interactive tour of several ceremonial rooms to see what might be whipped up with a lot of gilt, royal portraits and semi-naked statues. Or you can find out how to contact the queen: Snail, er Royal, Mail only, it turns out. HRH emails her grandchildren, but her email address is not public. And she’s not exactly a Twitterer.

Mostly the site gives you an idea of what the royals do day to day, which appears to be meeting a lot of people with whom they have nothing in common and trying to find something to talk about, sometimes with excruciating results. Perhaps thatâ€™s its true purpose. If it can puncture even one little girl’s dream of being a princess, it’s done us all a service.

Watch a TIME video on the annual Swan Upping.

Why Facebook Is for Old Fogies

Facebook is five. Maybe you didn’t get it in your news feed, but it was in February 2004 that Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, along with some classmates, launched the social network that ate the world. Did he realize back then in his dorm that he was witnessing merely the larval stage of his creation? For what began with college students has found its fullest, richest expression with us, the middle-aged. Here are 10 reasons Facebook is for old fogies:

1. Facebook is about finding people you’ve lost track of. And, son, we’ve lost track of more people than you’ve ever met. Remember who you went to prom with junior year See, we don’t. We’ve gone through multiple schools, jobs and marriages. Each one of those came with a complete cast of characters, most of whom we have forgotten existed. But Facebook never forgets. 2. We’re no longer bitter about high school. You’re probably still hung up on any number of petty slights, but when that person who used to call us that thing we’re not going to mention here, because it really stuck, asks us to be friends on Facebook, we happily friend that person. Because we’re all grown up now. We’re bigger than that. Or some of us are, anyway. We’re in therapy, and it’s going really well. These are just broad generalizations. Next reason. 3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions. We wish we still did that. But we don’t. 4. Facebook isn’t just a social network; it’s a business network. And unlike, say, college students, we actually have jobs. What’s the point of networking with people who can’t hire you Not that we’d want to work with anyone your age anyway. Given the recession–and the amount of time we spend on Facebook–a bunch of hungry, motivated young guns is the last thing we need around here. 5. We’re lazy. We have jobs and children and houses and substance-abuse problems to deal with. At our age, we don’t want to do anything. What we want is to hear about other people doing things and then judge them for it. Which is what news feeds are for. 6. We’re old enough that pictures from grade school or summer camp look nothing like us. These days, the only way to identify us is with Facebook tags. 7. We have children. There is very little that old people enjoy more than forcing others to pay attention to pictures of their children. Facebook is the most efficient engine ever devised for this. 8. We’re too old to remember e-mail addresses. You have to understand: we have spent decades drinking diet soda out of aluminum cans. That stuff catches up with you. We can’t remember friends’ e-mail addresses. We can barely remember their names. 9. We don’t understand Twitter. Literally. It makes no sense to us. 10. We’re not cool, and we don’t care. There was a time when it was cool to be on Facebook. That time has passed. Facebook now has 150 million members, and its fastest-growing demographic is 30 and up. At this point, it’s way cooler not to be on Facebook. We’ve ruined it for good, just like we ruined Twilight and skateboarding. So git! And while you’re at it, you damn kids better get off our lawn too. See the 50 best websites of 2008. See the Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials of 2009.

Nosediving plane damaged just one house

A man wipes away tears during a community memorial service Friday at a church near Buffalo, New York.
A commuter airliner whose crash late Thursday killed 50 people was in such a sharp nosedive when it hurtled into a residential area that only one house was damaged, local authorities said Saturday.

“All the damage was specific to that one property and that one structure,” Erie County Emergency Coordinator David Bissonette said at a morning news conference. “There was a garage to the immediate south that had a little bit of exposure damage, but other than that, limited to the one property.” A 61-year-old man in that house died — as did all 49 people aboard Continental Connection Flight 3407 — when the 74-seat Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 turboprop pierced the property like an arrow into a bull’s eye. The man’s wife and daughter, who were in a different part of the house, survived. A two-square-mile area around the crash site, about six miles from the Buffalo airport where the plane was headed, remained sealed off Saturday as investigators sought to determine the cause of the crash. But the extent of the restricted area belied the concentrated force of the impact into the one house. Watch what investigators are saying » Residents and business people were kept out of the sealed-off area, escorted by police if they needed to return to their homes or shops for brief periods. “That [restricted area] will be going on for at least the next couple of days as we go through the investigative process at the scene,” Bissonette said. Authorities said it would likely take weeks to positively identify remains of the victims, with DNA testing required in many cases because of the intensity of the crash and subsequent fire.

Airline information
Continental Airlines’ statements

Relatives helpline: 800-621-3263

In the house, Karen Wielinski was watching television when she heard a plane making an unusually loud noise. “I thought to myself, if that’s a plane, it’s going to hit something,” she told Buffalo radio station WBEN. “And next thing I knew the ceiling was on me,” she said. Wielinski and her daughter Jill, 22, were in the front of the home, and they escaped the house with minor injuries. Wielinski’s husband, Doug, who was in the dining room, was killed. On Friday, federal investigators released information from the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders indicating that icing may have been a major factor in the crash. The plane’s pilot and co-pilot discussed “significant ice buildup” on the plane’s windshield and wings as it descended toward the Buffalo airport, and the plane underwent “severe” pitching and rolling motions after the landing gear was lowered and wing flaps were set for the approach, Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board said at a news conference Friday afternoon.

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“The crew attempted to raise the gear and [reset] flaps shortly before the recordings ended,” he said. The Continental flight from Newark, New Jersey, operated by Colgan Air, crashed around 10:17 p.m. Thursday northeast of Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Follow the plane’s path » While there was a mix of sleet and snow in the area, other planes landed safely at the airport about the time the flight went down. The crew of a Delta flight reported “rime icing,” a condition in which ice quickly builds up on the leading edge of the wings. A US Airways flight also reported icing. The NTSB’s Chealander said the flight crew reported that visibility was about three miles and there was snow and mist as they descended. The voice and data recorders indicated that the plane’s internal de-icing was on during the landing approach, he said. “A significant ice buildup is an aerodynamic impediment,” he added. Find out why » Witnesses described Flight 3407’s last seconds. Keith Burtis was driving about a mile from the crash site when he heard the impact. “It was a high-pitched sound,” Burtis said. “It felt like a mini-earthquake.” A ball of fire filled the night sky as the jet fuel erupted, Burtis said, and he saw a steady stream of firetrucks rush by as smoke billowed. At least nine volunteer fire departments responded. Watch iReporters’ close-up accounts » Among the passengers killed was Beverly Eckert, a widow of a September 11, 2001, attack victim. Other passengers included Alison Des Forges, senior Africa adviser for Human Rights Watch, one of her colleagues confirmed to CNN. Des Forges spent four years in Rwanda documenting the 1994 genocide and had testified about the atrocity and the situation in central Africa to Congress and the United Nations, according to the organization. Also on the flight was Susan Wehle, a cantor at Temple Beth Am in Williamsville, outside Buffalo, a synagogue official said. Colgan Air identified the crew as Capt. Marvin Renslow, the pilot; First Officer Rebecca Shaw, who was co-pilot; and flight attendants Matilda Quintero and Donna Prisco. In addition, an off-duty crew member, Capt. Joseph Zuffoletto, was onboard. “This is easily the saddest day in the history of our airline,” said Philip Trenary, the company’s CEO. Renslow was from Lutz, Florida, and Friday afternoon a minister at his church gave reporters a statement on behalf of Renslow’s family. “They are very proud of Marvin’s accomplishments as a pilot,” said Alan Burner, associate pastor at the First Baptist Church of Lutz. “They know he did everything he could to save as many lives as he could, even in the accident.” Shaw, the first officer, was a 25-year-old pilot from Maple Valley, Washington, who had been with the airline about a year, according to her family. “I know Rebecca has flown into Buffalo several times,” her mother, Lynn Morris, said Friday as Shaw’s family spoke with reporters. “We didn’t want her to come home at Christmas because of the snow but she said, ‘Mom, I’ve flown in snow lots of times!'” Morris said. Shaw was the youngest of four children, and her siblings stood by their parents and fought back tears. “We’re in shock,” Morris said. “We don’t understand. We kind of keep expecting Becky to come around the corner and say it’s not real.”

Obama planning ambitious road ahead

President Obama waves as he boards Air Force One for Chicago, where the Obamas were to spend the weekend.
Fresh off victory on President Obama’s signature $787 billion economic recovery plan, several top White House aides say they’re planning an ambitious agenda for the rest of February.

The Senate had waited for the return of Democrat Sherrod Brown, who was returning from his mother’s wake in his home state of Ohio, to close the voting late Friday. For the rest of the month, the White House agenda will focus on addressing the housing crisis, cleaning up the banking mess and laying the groundwork for reform of the health care system and entitlement programs like Medicare. Obama’s economic stimulus plan, which top aides say will be signed into law as early as Monday at the White House, received no Republican votes in the House and just three in the Senate despite his heavy emphasis on drawing bipartisan support. There have also been several Cabinet miscues in the early days, but top White House aides are confident the president has gotten off to a strong start. “Does the road to change have some bumps Sure,” said one senior White House aide. “But we’re feeling good.” Several White House aides noted that in addition to the stimulus win, the president has signed into law an equal pay act and legislation expanding a children’s’ health insurance program for an extra 4 million kids. “There’s an enormity to what’s happened so far,” said one of the White House aides. “It’s hard work, but it’s worth it. We’re sprinting.” Aides say they plan to pick up the pace next week with a stimulus signing ceremony as early as Monday, though it could slide to Tuesday morning depending on how quickly congressional leaders wrap up the legislative details.

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Then Obama starts his first trip out West as president because White House aides say they believe Obama himself is their best salesman on the big agenda items coming. He will hold an economic event in Denver, Colorado, on Tuesday followed by the long-awaited unveiling, in Phoenix, Arizona, of his plan to deal with the foreclosure crisis on Wednesday. White House aides are holding back on details of the housing plan as top officials continue to weigh the best approach. Top Democrats like House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank have been pressing the White House for details, but White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday the goal is to get it right rather than rush it out. “It’s not intended to be measured by one day’s market scorekeeping, but instead to ensure that the 10,000 Americans each day that have their homes foreclosed on, and the millions more that are barely getting by, are protected,” Gibbs said. Several White House aides say it is unlikely the president will reveal his choice for either commerce secretary or health and human services secretary next week. As for which pick will be unveiled first, one aide said it depends on “whenever the next cake is baked” — meaning the White House is so eager to get both nominations behind them that they will move forward on either one when the president makes up his mind on the picks. The following week, the president will host what the White House is billing as a “fiscal responsibility” summit on February 23. The goal of the summit is to begin weighing the impact of massive federal programs like Social Security and Medicare just days before the president plans to unveil his first annual budget to Congressional leaders. Then on February 24, the president will deliver his first speech to a joint session of Congress. Top aides say that while other topics like foreign policy could be addressed briefly, the speech will be heavily focused on the economy and the domestic agenda. The president is expected to start taking on a role in selling the administration’s plans for fixing the financial regulatory system during the speech and in his travels, according to top aides. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner began rolling out a plan to bail out more banks and bring more accountability to the existing government bailout program known as TARP, but that unveiling received harsh reviews on Capitol Hill and on Wall Street.

Hugo Chavez: Man With No Limits?

This story has been updated.

Gunmen have started dumping bodies down the hillside garbage chute in La Silsa. The slum, one of the poorest that ring Caracas, was crime-ridden when I was a teacher there in the 1980s. But residents like housewife Gladys Rodríguez tell me the barrio has become a killing field over the past few years, and that corpses are sometimes found atop the rubbish pile below her street. “That’s what things have come to,” says Rodríguez, 36. “How do you hide your kids from that”

You can’t, which is why Rodríguez says she’s conflicted about Venezuela’s referendum on Feb. 15, over whether to eliminate presidential term limits. President Hugo Chavez wants to amend the constitution so that he can run for a third six-year term in 2012. On the hustings, the former paratrooper insists that only if he stays in Miraflores, the presidential palace, will “the people stay in power.” He’s taken to ending his rallies with a campaign slogan that anticipates the vote’s outcome: “Oo-ah, Chávez no se va!” Chávez isn’t leaving!

Most residents of La Silsa hope Chávez is right. Like other poor Venezuelans, they’re grateful for the poverty-reduction programs and medical clinics Chávez has lavished on barrios like theirs. The potable water, power lines, subsidized grocery stores, community councils that give average people more political say — they had none of that 20 years ago. Since Chávez’s leftist revolution began in 1999, though, Venezuela’s oil wealth has been redirected into populist spending programs that keep the poor on side and Chávez in power.

Can it last Poor Venezuelans know from experience the pain of the bust that follows a boom, and with oil hovering around $40 a barrel some of Chávez’s socialist agenda will surely face cuts after the referendum. Many people have begun asking why the radical who so boldly stands up to the U.S. can’t confront the violent crime that plagues the country and leaves scores dead each weekend. “I know in my heart that life is better here than it was 10 years ago,” says Tobías Caravallo, 42, who owns an electronics repair shop in La Silsa and is a devoted Chavista. But “we need more police on the streets. Better police.”

Polls suggest that Chávez has a narrow lead. Places such as La Silsa are likely to decide the outcome — though in a previous plebiscite, in 2007, his supporters failed to turn out in big enough numbers and voters rejected scrapping term limits, among other proposals. But even if Chávez fails a second time, few doubt he’ll try again before 2012. Fans say he needs to complete his revolutionary goals. “He’s leading a transformation of our society,” says Chávez’s former ambassador to the U.S., Bernardo Alvarez. “And we should let voters let him continue it.” Foes, who have had violent, tear gas-soaked clashes with police during marches for the no vote in the past few weeks, say Chávez has an egomaniacal obsession with being President for life. “This isn’t a constitutional amendment,” says opposition leader Leopoldo López. “It’s a constitutional violation.”

However you see it, ending term limits seems increasingly popular around Latin America. Chávez remains the standard-bearer of the region’s resurgent left; and after his first attempt to change the constitution, leftist Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador had their own term limits relaxed by popular vote. Colombia’s conservative President, Alvaro Uribe, won’t deny that he hopes to engineer a constitutional fix letting him seek a third term when his second mandate ends next year. The trend has democracy watchdogs fretful about a return of the Latin caudillo.

UK: Birth of 13-year-old dad’s child sparks outrage

The birth of a child fathered by a 13-year-old boy has sparked an uproar in Britain.

Alfie Patten, who was only 12 when the baby was conceived with his girlfriend Chantelle Steadman, 15, was pictured on the front of Friday’s tabloid Sun newspaper with his daughter, Maisie Roxanne, after her birth Monday. He told the newspaper that he thought “it would be good to have a baby.” “I didn’t think about how we would afford it. I don’t really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me £10. When my mum found out I thought I was going to get in trouble. We wanted to have the baby but were worried about how people would react. I didn’t know what it would be like to be a dad. I will be good, though, and care for it.” Chantelle, meanwhile, said: “I’m tired after the birth. I was nervous after going into labor but otherwise I was quite excited.” She later told the Sun that they wanted to “prove to everyone” that they could give Maisie a “great future” and said both of them planned to stay in school. Conservative party leader David Cameron told PA parenthood should not be something the teenagers should even have been contemplating. Former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who runs the Centre for Social Justice think tank, told the British Press Association the birth highlighted another case of “broken Britain” where “anything goes.” “It’s not being accusative, it’s about pointing out the complete collapse in some parts of society of any sense of what’s right and wrong.

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“There is no opprobrium any more about behaviour and quite often children witness behaviour that’s aggressive, violent, rude and sexual. It’s as if no one is saying this is wrong.” Prime Minister Gordon Brown said “all of us would want to avoid teenage pregnancies,” PA reported. Tony Kerridge, of the sexual health specialist Marie Stopes International, told PA children needed better education. “We have got the social aspect of young girls in the UK seeing having a baby as a route to getting their own place,” he said. London’s The Times newspaper reported Saturday that in the past decade more than 40 other boys aged under 14 had fathered children. The UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Western Europe — 385 girls under the age of 14 became pregnant between 1998 and 2007.

The Paradox of Thrift

Don’t spend more than you make. Don’t buy things you don’t need. Save for a rainy day. If Americans had followed these simple rules over the past decade, there would be no financial crisis, no worst-since-the-1930s recession, no acrimonious Washington debate over what to do about it.

Now we seem to be starting to rediscover thrift. Debt levels are falling. Consumer spending is down. The savings rate is on the rise. Great, right Not exactly. The sudden sobering up of the American consumer happens to be the No. 1 force driving the U.S. and global economies downward. We’re saving more, yet we’re all getting poorer. This is what some economists call the paradox of thrift. The notion is generally credited to Englishman John Maynard Keynes–seemingly the source of every important economic idea these days–although he doesn’t appear to have actually used the phrase. Paul McCulley, an economist and portfolio manager at bond giant Pimco, defines it like this: “If we all individually cut our spending in an attempt to increase individual savings, then our collective savings will paradoxically fall because one person’s spending is another’s income–the fountain from which savings flow.” So what do we do about this During the last recession, in 2001, President Bush famously urged the American people to get out and shop–and visit Disney World–to thwart the downturn. We did, and the recession was mild. It was followed, though, by an explosion of debt and imprudence. The savings rate fell below 1% for the first time since the early 1930s and stayed there from 2005 through 2007. Millions of Americans spent trillions of dollars on things–houses, mainly–they couldn’t afford. A painful reckoning was inevitable. And so now, while retailers and a few economists still make the case that more consumer spending would be a really great thing, our nation’s political leaders have concluded that it’s too soon to issue calls for more shopping. New York Times columnist David Leonhardt makes a clever pitch for spending now on things that will save you money later–such as Kindles and Costco memberships. But that’s not going to stave off depression. And so government indebtedness and spending are being substituted for consumer indebtedness and spending. The federal deficit is projected to hit $1.2 trillion this year, and that’s not counting the close to $1 trillion in further stimulus being contemplated by Congress. This kind of behavior, contends McCulley, is what the paradox of thrift demands. “Uncle Sam has got to go the other direction and lever up his balance sheet and actually spend money,” he says. Simply standing by and letting the downward economic spiral worsen strikes him as “inconsistent with a civilized society.” Still, the approach remains paradoxical. Our profligacy has gotten us into trouble, and so the response is … more profligacy There is no shortage of critics who contend that today’s massive government spending is simply laying the foundation of another financial crisis, this one centering on a loss of confidence in Treasuries and the dollar. For now, we’re betting that it won’t–and investors from around the world are letting us get away with it by continuing to buy U.S.-government debt. We will, however, eventually have to shape up. Consumers must pay down their credit cards, and the country must pay down at least part of its debt. “Some of the painful adjustments that are taking place are not avoidable,” says David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values, a New York City think tank that for the past few years has made an obsession of thrift. “Wringing debt out of our economy at every level is a painful and inevitable process, and it isn’t going to be solved by charging more things at the supermarket.” Blankenhorn isn’t opposed to using government stimulus to ease the transition, but he’s worried that it could obscure the need for big changes in behavior. “If the moral of today’s crisis is ‘Let’s stimulate this and bail out that, and as soon as things get back to normal, we can go back to a debt culture,’ that’s just not a sustainable idea,” he says. He’s right. Virtually all economists agree that there is no paradox of thrift in the long run. Saving stimulates investment. Careful stewardship of resources brings prosperity. Frugality is its own reward. Just not right this second. See pictures of the recession of 1958.

See pictures of Americans in their homes.

Saudi King appoints first woman to council

Saudi King Abdullah has appointed a woman to his council of ministers for the first time.
Saudi King Abdullah has for the first time appointed a woman to the council of ministers as part of a Cabinet reshuffling, Saudi owned Al-Arabiya television station reported Saturday.

King Abdullah announced a new supreme court chief, a new minister of health, a new justice minister and a new information minister as part of the reshuffling, Al-Arabiya reported. King Abdullah appointed Noor Al-Fayez to the Saudi Council of Ministers. She will serve in a new position as deputy minister for women’s education. “People are very excited about this,” said Khaled Al-Maeena, editor-in-chief of Arab News, an English-language daily newspaper in Saudi Arabia. “This sends a clear signal that the King means business. Instead of appointing some bureaucrat, he appointed a woman.”

Search for answers begins in Buffalo plane crash

Only a few pieces of the Continental Connection Dash 8 turboprop were recognizable after the crash.
The pilots of a commuter airliner that crashed late Thursday about 6 miles from a Buffalo, New York, airport discussed "significant ice buildup" on the plane’s wings and windshields before the plane plunged to the ground, killing 50.

Continental Connection Flight 3407 was en route from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo Niagara International Airport when it went down about 10:20 p.m. ET Thursday. Preliminary information recovered from the flight’s cockpit voice and data recorders indicated that the plane underwent “severe” pitching and rolling motions after the landing gear was lowered and wing flaps were set for the approach, Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday afternoon. “The crew discussed significant ice buildup, ice on the windshield and leading edge of the wings,” Chealander said. “The crew attempted to raise the gear and [reset] flaps shortly before the recordings ended,” he said. iReport.com: Are you there Let us know The plane crashed into a home in Buffalo, killing all 49 people aboard and one person on the ground. Firefighters brought under control a blaze at the crash site on Friday, blaming a natural gas leak for the fire’s persistence. Two occupants of the house survived — a woman and her daughter — and were released from a hospital after treatment for minor injuries, authorities said. Read about the escape The first sign the air traffic controllers had of trouble was when Flight 3407 went off the radar. Before that, it had been business as usual. The first officer, who was the co-pilot, had no sign of stress in her voice as she talked with air traffic control. The plane was cleared for approach.

Airline information
Continental Airlines’ statements

Relatives helpline: 800-621-3263

About a minute later, the air traffic controller said that contact with the plane had been lost and asked whether crews in other aircraft could see anything. No one responded. The controller then said there might be a plane down. Although there was a mix of sleet and snow in the area, other planes landed safely at the airport about the time the flight went down. Watch what weather was like when disaster happened » The crew of a Delta flight reported rime icing, a condition in which ice quickly builds up on the leading edge of the wings. A US Air flight also reported icing. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers noted that there was “icing all over western New York” at the altitude the plane was flying. See how ice affects airplanes » “Almost every minute of their flight was in an ice event,” he said. The NTSB’s Chealander said the flight crew reported that visibility was about 3 miles and there was snow and mist as they descended.

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The voice and data recorders indicated that the plane’s internal de-icing was on during the landing approach, he said. Watch report from witness: “All I saw was flames” » “A significant ice buildup is an aerodynamic impediment,” Chealander said. Tony Tatro was on his way home from the gym when the plane flew about 75 feet above him. The craft’s nose was lower than usual, and and the left wing was tilted, he said. “The engines didn’t sound typical, didn’t sound normal,” he said. Watch witness describe how plane went down » The plane was loud as it came in, as if for a takeoff rather than for a landing, said David Luce, who lives 300 feet from the crash site. “The engines sounded like they were revving at very high speed, an unnatural sound,” Luce said. “Then the engine cut out — stopped. And within a couple of seconds, there was this tremendous explosion. “It was an enormous explosion. It sounded like it hit, frankly, right in our backyard. … The house shook; the windows shook; the ground shook,” he said. “It was a real blast.” Watch Mary Jane Luce describe what she heard » Among the dead were Beverly Eckert, widow of a September 11 attack victim, and Susan Wehle, a cantor at Temple Beth Am in Williamsville, outside Buffalo. Also aboard was Alison Des Forges, senior Africa adviser for Human Rights Watch, a colleague confirmed. Des Forges spent four years in Rwanda documenting the 1994 genocide and had testified about the atrocity and the current situation in central Africa to Congress and the United Nations, according to the organization. Read about the victims A representative for Colgan Air, which operated the plane for Continental, identified the crew as pilot Capt. Marvin Renslow, first officer Rebecca Shaw and flight attendants Matilda Quintero and Donna Prisco. An off-duty pilot, Capt. Joseph Zuffoletto, was also aboard. On Friday afternoon, a minister from Renslow’s church in Lutz, Florida, made a statement on the family’s behalf. “They are very proud of Marvin’s accomplishments as a pilot,” said Alan Burner, associate pastor at the First Baptist Church of Lutz. “They know he did everything he could to save as many lives as he could, even in the accident.” Shaw, a 25-year-old pilot from Maple Valley, Washington, had been with the airline about a year, according to her family. “We’re in shock,” her mother, Lynn Morris, said. “We don’t understand. We kind of keep expecting Becky to come around the corner and say it’s not real.” Watch Morris discuss the loss of her daughter » In Washington, President Obama issued a statement expressing his condolences. “Our hearts go out to the families and friends who lost loved ones,” Obama said. “I want to thank the brave first responders who arrived immediately to try and save lives and who are continuing to ensure the safety of everyone in the area. We pray for all those who have been touched by this terrible tragedy to find peace and comfort in the hard days ahead.” The Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office established a command post at the scene and had investigators there, a statement from the office said. Officials said relatives of passengers aboard the flight should call 800-621-3263 for information. Watch what iReporter captured on film Thursday’s incident is the first fatal crash of a commercial airliner in the United States since August 2006, when Comair Flight 5191 crashed while attempting to take off from the wrong runway near Lexington, Kentucky.

2 would-be passengers feel relief, sadness: ‘It could have been me’

An investigator works the scene of the plane crash Friday outside Buffalo, New York.
One person credits bad weather and the other a long line.

Those are the reasons two would-be passengers did not fly on Continental Connection Flight 3407, which crashed Thursday outside Buffalo, killing all 49 people aboard and one on the ground. “It could have been me,” David Becony said in an interview from his home in Springville, New York, as he watched television reports on the crash and its fiery aftermath. “My wife would have been with all those families” who had loved ones on the plane. Becony missed the flight from Newark-Liberty International Airport to Buffalo Niagara International Airport because bad weather had delayed his earlier flight from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Newark. Unable to get another flight and unable to find a hotel room near the airport, the supervisor for a demolition company decided to camp out on a seat in the terminal. Watch how airlines have reacted to crash » When he found out the plane he was to have taken had crashed, he called his wife, Marti, at their home outside Buffalo. “He broke down and I broke down,” she said. “We just couldn’t believe it.” Becony spent a sleepless night in Newark, then returned Friday morning to Buffalo — on another Continental Connection flight. It wasn’t a smooth ride, Becony said of his Friday flight. “It was weird, shaky, knowing it was the same type of aircraft.”

Fact Box Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed late Thursday outside Buffalo, killing all 49 people aboard and one on the ground.

That type of aircraft was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, operated by Colgan Air for Continental Connection’s regional service. “I’m still in shock, really,” said the 49-year-old Becony, a Catholic. “God was looking over me.” Becony is keeping his unused ticket for Flight 3407 as a reminder of how close he came. His wife said friends and family called all morning to check on his safety. “It is WOW,” she said. “It’s been unbelievable. We’re happy. We’re sad for everybody else.” Asked how her husband’s close call would affect the family, which includes two children and two grandchildren, she said, “I think we’ll probably appreciate each other a lot more.” Susan Reinhardt, 49, a marketer for Verizon, had a confirmed seat on a 4:30 p.m. flight from Newark to Buffalo, but it was delayed for four hours because of bad weather and she was looking for alternatives. Using her Blackberry to search Continental’s Web site, she noted that the 7 p.m. flight was delayed by only about 20 minutes, so she asked the gate agent whether she could get on the standby list for that flight. “He said, ‘It’s pretty open … easy eight standby seats. You won’t have a problem getting on it,’ she said in a telephone interview. “I said, ‘Can you put me on standby’ He said, ‘No, you’ve got to go on the customer service line.’ ” But that line “was a gazillion deep because of all the delays,” enough to dissuade her from making the switch. “I said, ehhh.”

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When she heard about the crash, Reinhardt was happy for her good fortune, but shaken nevertheless. “The heart-wrenching piece for me was I was at the gate talking to this gate agent and a young woman came up and she wanted to know: Should she stay on the 7 o’clock flight because of all the delays Did the gate agent think the 4:30 was going to get out before the 7 “He said, ‘No, you will still get in before the 4:30,’ and she said, ‘OK, I’m going to stay on the 7 o’clock, I’m calling my boyfriend.’ And she did.” For a while, the two women stood together at the gate — both of them using their Blackberries to study the flight information. Then, they went their separate ways. “I said, ‘Good for you. Have a nice trip.’ That’s the killer for me.” Reinhardt said her flight was uneventful. She and the other passengers landed at the airport in Buffalo shortly before 11 p.m., oblivious to what had happened just minutes before and a few miles away. “I walked out and I saw all these people standing there and I’m thinking, ‘It’s Thursday at 11 at night. Why are all these people in Buffalo Who are they waiting for’ Watch witnesses describe fiery crash » “They were waiting for that plane that didn’t come in. Of course, I didn’t know that until I got to my car and then my phone starts ringing.” Reinhardt said the close call has made her “a little more philosophical where, if it wasn’t my time, OK, it wasn’t my time. What is the meaning of my life now What am I supposed to do because it wasn’t my time I’ve had several people say, you know, sometimes you can’t ask why. It just is the way it is.” Reinhardt said she plans to go to one of the memorial services. “I think I need to do that for some kind of closure.”