Cargo Jet Crashes, Scatters Burning Debris; 4 Feared Dead
MIAMI — A cargo jet wobbled after takeoff Thursday and crashed at the edge of the airport, hurling a wall of fire into a bustling business district, witnesses said. All four people aboard were presumed dead.
Flaming debris set cars ablaze and clattered up to several doorsteps in the busy strip of warehouses, computer parts stores and flower wholesalers, melting awnings and sending panicked workers scrambling to get out.
“Everybody was yelling, ‘Run! Run! Run!’ †said Mildred Marquez, who fled from Asian Sources Computer. “We didn’t know it was an airplane. We were going crazy. We thought we were all going to die.â€
The DC-8 owned by Fine Air Services was bound for the Dominican Republic carrying denim with a crew of three and an employee of the company shipping the cargo, said Richard Dunn, a lawyer for the airline.
Huge red flames and black smoke billowed skyward when the jet crashed. Witnesses said it took off at a steep altitude, hesitated and wobbled sharply to each side before it crashed in a field. Some of the witnesses said one of the plane’s engines appeared to catch fire before the crash.
Federal investigators, who had already located the flight recorders, will be looking for mechanical problems as well as whether pallets holding about 80,000 pounds of textile cargo shifted inside.
“It went straight up like a missile,†said Bill Garcia, who was on a United Parcel Service picket line. “It veered to the right and to the left and then it just nose-dived straight down.â€
Wreckage skidded along for more than the length of a football field, crossing six-lane 72nd Avenue, sliding underneath power lines and into the parking lot of the shopping center. The cockpit was found just 50 feet from the building, which was blackened but not otherwise damaged.
“I looked to my left and this plane’s coming at me,†said a witness, adding the jet missed her by about 30 feet. “I’m still shaking. It happened right in from of me. All I could think of was, ‘I’ve got to get out of here.’ â€
The flaming wreckage crushed cars, scorched pavement, singed palm trees and knocked down fences. A towering column of black smoke was visible from downtown Miami, more than 10 miles away.
Firefighters arrived within minutes and doused the wreckage with fire-retardant foam.
At least two people on the ground suffered minor injuries.
Linda O’Brien of Metro-Dade Public Safety Department said all four people aboard the plane were presumed dead. Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas said later that three of the bodies had been found and they were still looking for the fourth.
The crash came just a day after Miami-based Fine Air Services Inc. first sold stock to the public. After the crash, the stock on the Nasdaq exchange fell $1.37 1/2 to $14.50, a drop of 9% for the day and off 15% from its peak before trading was halted.
Fine Air, one of Miami’s busiest cargo carriers, operates a fleet of 15 DC-8s hauling freight to South America, Central America and the Caribbean. The company grew out of a 1948 air service that transported fresh produce from Latin America to the United States.
Nancy Aders, Fine Air vice president of sales, said the crash was the first for the 7-year-old airline. “We just went through an extensive FAA inspection and passed with flying colors three weeks ago,†she told Fox News.
The plane was originally delivered to now-defunct Eastern Airlines in 1968 and became part of the Fine Air fleet in July 1993.
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