Second black box from US jet crash found
Investigators have found the flight data recorder that could yield clues about the final seconds of the American Airlines crash in New York that killed more than 260 people.
The data recorder was one of the two "black boxes" aboard Flight 587. The other, the cockpit voice recorder, was found shortly after yesterday's crash.
The flight data recorder tracks the speed and actions of the engines and instruments.
Authorities said the voice recorder did not indicate any problems aboard the flight that crashed less than three minutes after leaving nearby John F Kennedy Airport.
"The communications from the cockpit were normal up until the last few seconds before the crash," said Marion Blakey, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). She did not elaborate on the last few moments.
But authorities did not rule out sabotage or other potential causes. "We're not going to exclude that possibility until the investigation goes much further than this," George Black, a member of the NTSB, said today on the NBC television Today programme.
A source close to the investigation said the board was also looking at whether the engines failed after sucking in birds. John F Kennedy Airport, running along Jamaica Bay, has had problems with birds on the runway.
All 260 people aboard the European-made Airbus A300 were killed, the airline said.
Five other people were reported missing on the ground, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said.
