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Investigators pin mechanical failure as cause of crash

Mechanical failure appeared to be the cause of Monday's plane crash in New York killing all 260 people on board and several on the ground, but investigators have not definitely ruled out terrorist involvement in the tragedy.

Emergency workers have recovered 262 bodies and five more people are missing on the ground, New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani said.

The American Airlines airbus, en route to the Dominican Republic, crashed in a residential area minutes after take-off from the John F Kennedy airport.

The National Transport Safety Board joined the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration in stressing that there was no indication that the crash was anything other than an accident.

However, television network CNN quoting an unnamed transportation department official said investigators have not definitively ruled out terrorism in the crash but thinks some sort of engine failure caused the disaster.

Just before it crashed, the airbus with 251 passengers and nine crew members broke up in midair and a sizeable portion of the vertical stabiliser from the tail section landed in Jamaica Bay, while most of the fuselage plunged into Rockaway residential area.

One engine landed at a gas station, while other engine pieces crushed a boat parked in the driveway of a home that caught fire.

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