Investigators have recovered the flight data recorder of the plane which crashed into the Queens area of New York City yesterday. The data recorder of American Airlines Flight 587 may reveal important evidence about what caused the plane to crash.
An initial examination of the cockpit voice recorder, recovered yesterday, indicated that the crash was an accident. The bodies of at least 265 people have been recovered from the wreckage. Up to nine people are still missing on the ground.
American Airlines said, in a statement, that it had raised the count of passengers on board the Airbus A300 to 260. They raised the number of passengers to account for five infants carried on parents' laps.
The authorities have released the names of those on board the plane. They include a woman who escaped the World Trade Centre attacks in September and a US Navy officer who had just returned from a tour of duty on the USS Enterprise as part of the America's campaign against Afghanistan.
The aircraft crashed in the Rockaway suburb of Queens. This area had already greatly suffered from bereavements in the 11 September terrorist attacks.
The flight was en route to the Dominican Republic capital, Santo Domingo. The government of the Central American country has declared three days of national mourning in response to the crash.
