OAG Travel News

It is not clear what caused the crash. There was reported to be light snow and fog at the time.

TV footage showed the wreckage of the plane and a house engulfed in flames.

Twelve other homes were evacuated around the crash site in Clarence Center, a suburb of Buffalo.

State police spokeswoman Rebecca Gibbons said that of the 48 people on the plane, "there were no survivors."

Dave Bissonette, the emergency control director in Clarence, said one person on the ground had been killed.

The twin-prop Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, operated by Colgan Air, was flying from Newark airport in New Jersey to Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

US media say a recording of Buffalo's air traffic control before the crash showed no concerns by either the controller or the pilot.

However, a minute later, the controller was unable to contact Flight 3407 and asks other planes in the area if they can spot it.

I was told by the tower the plane simply dropped off the radar screen," Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority spokesman C Douglas Hartmayer was quoted by the Buffalo News as saying.

Erie County Executive Chris Collins said there were three people in the house that was hit. One died and the other two managed to escape, with apparently minor injuries. Other reports say there was just one person in the house at the time.

"The tail of the plane is sticking out of the ground," he told CNN.

"Obviously, it exploded upon impact. So there was a lot of fire initially. It landed - or it came down right next to the fire hall. So there were firemen on this scene within literally seconds of it going down.

"I can't say enough about what the firefighters did, rushing right in as you might expect they would - a very heroic effort. But there were no survivors."

He said the fire was now under control and the site of the crash had been sealed off.

David Luce, who lives 150 yards from the crash site, said he heard the plane moments before the crash.

"It sounded quite loud, and then the sound stopped," he told the Buffalo newspaper.

"Then one or two seconds later, there was a thunderous explosion. I thought something hit our house. It shook our whole house."

He described going to the scene of the crash and seeing flames up to 50ft high.

"The house was already flattened. There was no house, just a pile of rubbish and still burning".

Chris Kausner said his sister Elise, a law student, was on the flight.

"I'm thinking about the fact that my mother has to fly home from Florida and what I'm going to tell my two sons."

Continental Airlines expressed profound sadness over the crash and said it was working closely with Colgan Air to "provide as much support as possible for all concerned".

The Federal Aviation Administration is sending a team of investigators to the scene.

Source: BBC