Word: crashes
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While no one knows for sure what caused the crash of American Airlines flight 587, there is growing consensus that the plane was felled by a tragic accident rather than an act of terrorism...
...investigation continued Tuesday into the crash of American Airlines flight 587, which killed 246 passengers and nine crew members. Workers at the scene recovered the plane's flight data recorder, one of the two "black boxes" used to analyze the last moments aboard doomed flights. The cockpit voice recorder was pulled from the wreckage just hours after the crash...
...Officials hope the black boxes will confirm their current suspicions: That the tragic crash of Flight 587 was an accident - not an act of terrorism...
Meanwhile, there are still serious questions about the crash. The preliminary conclusion by French investigators is well known: during takeoff, a 16-in. metal strip on the runway slashed one of the Concorde's tires, sending a 10-lb. piece of rubber into the underside of the wing and causing a fuel tank to rupture. Something yet undetermined ignited a fire that engulfed the No. 2 engine. There was also a problem with the No. 1 engine: it could not provide thrust. Given those problems, the pilots lost control of the plane after only one minute...
...aviation sources in Britain and France as well as published reports (including a major investigative piece in the London Observer) argue that the crash was a much more complex series of events. First, a 5-in. long "spacer," a metal part that helps keep in alignment the four wheels on one of the Concorde's landing gear, was left off the Air France plane. This mistake very likely hindered the speed of the plane as it rolled down the runway and caused it to veer severely to its left, striking a runway light. Critics argue that debris from this light...