Fierce fires are raging in areas of Rockaway Beach
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said there were no survivors among the 246 passengers and nine crew. A further six people who were residents of the Rockaway Beach area have been reported missing.
President Bush offered condolences to the families of victims.
"The New York people have suffered mightily and they are suffering again," he said.
"There is no doubt in my mind that they are a strong and courageous people." The FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration have stressed that there is no indication the crash was anything other than an accident.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said nothing had been ruled out, but added that no terrorist threat had been received.
"There were no unusual communications with the cockpit beforehand," he told reporters.
He denied the FBI was investigating reports of an explosion on board the aircraft, as had earlier been suggested.
Dumping fuel
Suspicions that the crash was the result of an accident have been bolstered by reports that the pilot released fuel in the sea shortly before his plane came down.
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Flight 587 disaster |
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He added that flights out of JFK airport remained grounded while investigators examined the possibility that the fuel pumped into flight 587 before take-off was contaminated.
It is hoped that the black box, which has already been recovered from the site, will provide some answers as to why the flight came down.
A dozen Rockaway homes were consumed by flames following the crash. One piece of debris set ablaze part of a petrol station.
Mayor Giuliani praised the New York fire department for the speed in which the blaze was brought under control, and said it was fortunate that the crash site was relatively confined.
"But for a very quick response today, the tragedy would have been much greater," he said.
"It could have been far worse, there are any number of ways that this could have been far worse. It was amazing how the plane just landed in one small defined area."
Click here for a map of the crash site
About 150 of the passengers on the plane were Dominican citizens. The country's president has expressed his deep sorrow.
In Santo Domingo's airport, distraught relatives of passengers broke down upon hearing the news.
"Oh my God!" said one, Miriam Fajardo, after being told that
her sister and three nephews were aboard.
"I hadn't seen them in eight years. Now they're gone."
Fire and flames
An eyewitness in Rockaway saw an engine "come off" and hit the ground, while the plane came down several blocks away.
"All of the sudden, I see an engine fall off, and it went to the side, and in 10, 15 seconds it went down," Kevin O'Rourke told local television.
"We are being tested one more time and we will pass this test," Mayor Giuliani said.
The mayor had been to a number of funerals in the area recently because it had lost so many people in the attacks of 11 September.
State of alert
This is the first major airline crash in the United States since four passenger flights were crashed in suicide hijackings on 11 September, destroying both towers of the World Trade Center in New York and smashing into the Pentagon in Washington.
All three airports serving New York - JFK, Newark and La Guardia - were closed for a number of hours and international flights diverted to other cities.
The airports have been reopened, although planes are still not being allowed to take off from JFK.
Tunnels and bridges were also closed to all but emergency vehicles for several hours as a precaution, and fighter jets flew over the scene in Queens.
The Dow index dropped 130 points on hearing the news.
David Learmount of Flight International told BBC News Online it was very rare for an Airbus A300 to crash on take-off in good weather, but not completely impossible.
I looked out the window - I saw a piece of metal falling from the sky
Witness Phyllis Paul
Local residents joined fire teams with garden hoses and fire extinguishers. A huge pall of black smoke above the area was visible from miles away.
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