When the flight attendant was found, she was still strapped to the folding seat intended for cabin crew. The force of the impact threw her out of the completely demolished front part of the hull. She survived and was taken to the hospital along with 41 other injured people.
The airport said that 32 injured have already been released. It is not clear whether the flight attendant is among them. Some people suffered serious injuries.
According to The New York Post, among the injured are also firefighters from the fire engine that the plane collided with on the runway. Because the plane hit the middle part of the fire engine, the crew survived because they were ejected. Firefighters suffered fractures.
The pilots died
On the contrary, both pilots died, because the nose of the plane was already low and bore the brunt of the impact, during which the fire engine overturned. The front part of the plane was completely demolished and torn off.
But it is possible that the crew prevented a greater tragedy. According to one of NBC’s sources, the plane’s engines were turned off when the firefighters and rescuers arrived, which made it possible to immediately start rescue operations and get the passengers out of the plane’s fuselage using attached steps.
The fact that the flight attendant was ejected from the fuselage casts doubt on claims that the Bombardier CRJ-900 was traveling at 25 to 30 miles per hour (40 to 50 km/h), as reported by a number of websites. On the contrary, CNN reported that the plane was moving at a speed of 130 mph at the time of the collision.
Photo: Shannon Stapleton, Reuters
