Originally Posted by
sunnyjl
A friend of a friend lives across the street from the crash site and saw the crash. He said the plane was on fire before it hit the ground.
sunnyjl,
You name me a famous aircraft accident and I can almost guarantee that there will be a half dozen witnesses who swear they saw the plane on fire or that there was a large explosion inflight....and 99% of the time they always wrong. BTW, numerous witnesses in the recent USAirways ditching claimed the plane was on fire. Witnesses to aviation accidents are notoriously unreliable. That doesn't mean that the NTSB doesn't want to hear from them, but in many cases they simply don't provide useful information because they have preconceived ideas of what makes a plane crash. Many people are convinced that when an aircraft engine catches fire, the plane immediately plummets out of the sky (not to mention that engines rarely ever catch fire). Say the word 'stall' in regards to aviation and most people are convinced that it means the engine stopped working.
Also, the woman whose home was hit was interviewed on the local radio station, and she said she heard people crying after the plane hit, so people were still alive.
I haven't read that anywhere. What I have read in numerous accounts is that the owner of the house, Karen Wielinski , heard her daughter Jill who also survived, crying and screaming hysterically. Numerous accounts also report that neighbors were instantly on the scene crying and screaming for help and to "call 911". In any case, I'm sure you know that the NTSB has something called a Survival Factors Group that will forensically look at victims to determine whether any survived the accident and/or what can be done in the future to make that type of accident more survivable. If someone survived, it will be in the report. In the meantime, several posters to this thread have mentioned that they knew someone on board so I don't see how you're helping by posting unsubtantiated rumors as fact.
Anything else you want to know, I can probably provide better info...
No, I don't think you can. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are just trying to be helpful. Further, there's nothing wrong with suggesting theories or possibilities about the causes or results of the accident. There are numerous "What might have happened" threads on the several Airline Pilot Boards that I participate in. However, we clearly differentiate between what is fact and what is supposition or theory. You're not providing 'info', you're providing rumor and posting it as fact.