BUFFALO, New York (Reuters) – Forty nine people were killed when a plane crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York, and burst into a ball of flames late on Thursday, officials said.

 

The plane, a Continental Connection flight operated by Colgan Air, was on a flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo with 44 passengers and four crew on board when it crashed in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence Center amid rain and sleet, officials said.

 

Becky Gibbons of New York State Police, speaking to CNN, said all 48 people on the plane were killed. The New York Times, citing an official of Erie County, Chris Collins, said one person on the ground was killed.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane crashed 6 miles short of the airport.

 

There was no word yet on the cause of the crash.

 

“The plane was coming in really low … I looked out my window and the whole sky illuminated with orange flame,” one witness, Shawn Wolf, told MSNBC.

 

Colgan Air said in a statement that the plane was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400. The plane is a turboprop regional aircraft that can carry more than 70 people, and is made by

 

Bombardier Inc. Colgan Air is a subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines Corp

 

Colgan Air said the plane, Continental Airlines Flight 3407, crashed at about 10:20 p.m. (0320 GMT Friday). The company did not give any details of fatalities.

 

“There is nothing left of the fuselage or the wings,” witness Stephen Wallace told MSNBC from the crash site.

 

The tail section was sticking up from a crater, he said.

 

He cited several witnesses as saying there were flames coming from the plane before it crashed.

 

The Buffalo News quoted a nurse at Erie County Medical Center as saying the hospital’s second shift had been told to stay late to treat survivors but was sent home before midnight.

 

“There were no souls to bring in and treat,” she said.

 

One person who heard the crash from about three quarters of a mile away, said the crash sounded like an earthquake.

 

“It was almost like on TV where you hear this high pitched sound. It was like an earthquake. You could feel it,” the witness, Keith Burtis, told MSNBC.

“I’m downwind from it and the smoke and smell is still pretty strong.”

 

The crash came less than a month after the successful crash landing of a US Airways jetliner on the Hudson River in New York City. All 155 people on board survived after the plane struck birds that were sucked into both engines and pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger brought the plane down on the river. Passengers and crew were rescued by ferry boats.

 

(Reporting by Gary Wiepert, Mohammad Zargham in Washington, Daniel Trotta in New York, Editing by Frances Kerry)

Source: REUTERS