Plane crash in Queen's

A 767 apparently on its way to JFK.

near the bronx, from radio/cnn.

Rockaway Beach, Queens; AA587 en route to the Dominican Republic, most likely an accident. 246 passengers and nine crew (or thereabouts) on board, four buildings on fire, yadda yadda yadda.

Unrelated to 11/9 attacks.

Let the hearsay, conjecture and conspiracy theories commence...

I've heard i) that one of the engines just fell off and ii) that the USAF shot it down for no adequately explained reason.

I'm flying to America on Wednesday. HARDCORE.

It's funny how low the NYC media is on hysterics. But they're not saying it's "unrelated" to 11 Sept., a speculation as baseless as a firm statement that it is terrorism. I suppose false assurances that it isn't sabotage are less objectionable than hysteria that it is, but really, why is it hard to say that no one has any idea what the cause is?

In any case, present reports, minus snarky comments, are that there was an "explosion" of indeterminate cause aboard the plane.

Are there really claims that the USAF shot down the plane? There's no way it was over a few hundred feet off the ground-- Jamaica Bay is at the end of the runways of Kennedy Airport. Also, when there are USAF planes over New York (like there have been for a couple hours now), you can hear it (as I can right now). They're a bit hard to conceal, and nobody on the news has mentioned hearing or seeing it. I think THAT particular conspiracy theory can be thrown right out on logistical grounds alone.

The greater question is to what ends such a theory serve.