Turkish Airlines plane fell ‘vertically’ to ground

The Turkish Airlines plane that crashed this week in Amsterdam fell almost vertically to the ground, making only a short track in the muddy farmer’s field where it went down, Dutch investigators said Friday. That sudden drop indicates the aircraft did not have enough forward speed when it crashed, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Board said, but the reasons for that are still unclear. It is too early to speculate on the cause of the crash, spokesman Fred Sanders told CNN.

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Turks, Americans are Amsterdam crash dead

The nationalities of the people killed in the Turkish Airlines plane crash near Amsterdam’s main airport have been identified as five Turks and four U.S. citizens. Among the dead were two Boeing employees, among four onboard the flight, their company said late Thursday in a posting on its Web site.

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Controller thought Hudson landing would be ‘death sentence’

For three minutes, the most frightened people in the world may have been the crew and passengers aboard US Airways Flight 1549 as the plane headed for a splashdown in the Hudson River. But for the next half-hour, that unwelcome distinction may have gone to Patrick Harten, the air traffic controller who communicated with Capt

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NTSB: Plane rolled violently before crash

A commuter airliner that crashed Thursday in upstate New York, killing 50 people, underwent violent pitching and rolling seconds before impact, with passengers experiencing twice the normal force of gravity, a federal investigator said Sunday.

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Air Force One is one ‘spiffy ride,’ Obama says

During the first couple of weeks of his presidency, Barack Obama has made good use of his "spiffy" new ride. The president, who has made several trips around the country in Air Force One, was particularly excited during his first trip on the plane as commander in chief, when he flew to the House Democrats’ annual retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia, last week. “Thanks for giving me a reason to fly Air Force One,” he told the House Democrats after his flight, which took him away from a week of fighting for the economic stimulus bill

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Nosediving plane damaged just one house

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.

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Search for answers begins in Buffalo plane 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.

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

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.

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