49 people dead after Continental Express plane hits house outside Buffalo. Crash scene is near firehouse. Video, maps and links for news coverage.
Updated links, maps and new early video can be found here
Early video from a resident of the neighborhood where the crash occurred.
Above and at the bottom of the page are some of the first images from our sister station WGRZ-TV of the crash of Continental Express Flight 3407 in Erie County, NY.
Tragedy late Thursday in Clarence Center, NY near Buffalo as a Continental Express plane crashed into a neighborhood killing 48 people on the plane and one on the ground. The crash site is less than two blocks from the Clarence Center VFC (see map below). Below are links to news coverage and video:
Clarence Center VFC message about the crash
FireRescue & Firefighter Nation
Slideshow from wusa9.com’s Emily Cyr
Here is some of the latest at 1:52 AM from reporters Dale Anderson and Phil Fairbanks with The Buffalo News:
Forty-nine people died when a Continental Express airplane crashed into a house in Clarence Center shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday, setting off a huge fire that could be seen miles away.
The dead included 44 passengers, four crew members and a person on the ground.
A nurse at Erie County Medical Center said 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.
Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority spokesman C. Douglas Hartmayer said there was little communication between the plane, Flight 3407, and the tower before the crash. Crew members aboard the flight from Newark Airport had reported mechanical problems as they approached Buffalo.
The plane reportedly was a Bombardier Q400, a twin-engine turboprop with a passenger capacity of about 74.
“I was told by the tower the plane simply dropped off the radar screen,” Hartmayer said.
On this map A is the Clarence Center VFC at 9415 Clarence Center Road. The crash site, B on the map, is reported to be 6050 Long Street, around the corner from the firehouse. Click the image for more.
This is apparently the block of Long Street in Clarence Center where the crash occurred. Click the image for the full Google Street View.
