A plane with 48 people on board crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York, and burst into flames late on Thursday, and MSNBC quoted the Federal Aviation Administration as saying there were no survivors on the plane. Local emergency officials said earlier there were multiple fatalities. CNN said one person was killed on the ground.
The plane, a Continental Express flight operated by Colgan Air, was on a flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo, when it crashed in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence Centre amid rain and sleet, local officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said there were 44 passengers and four crew on the plane and it crashed 10 kilometres short of the airport.
A local official said the plane was a 74-seat Bombardier Q400, a turboprop plane. The plane is made by Bombardier Inc. Colgan Air is a subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines Corp.
One person who heard the crash from about one kilometre away, said the crash sounded like an earthquake.
"It was almost like on TV where you hear this high pitched sound. It was like an earthquake. You could feel it," the witness, Keith Burtis, told MSNBC.
"I'm downwind from it and the smoke and smell is still pretty strong."
He said the accident site was a populated area on the edge of farmland.
Meanwhile Beverly Eckert, the widow of a Sept. 11 victim and an advocate for survivors, died in the commuter plane crash near Buffalo, New York, relatives said.
Ms Eckert met President Barack Obama in Washington last weed along with other relatives of those killed in the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
"She was an inspiration to me and to so many others, and I pray that her family finds peace and comfort in the hard days ahead," Mr Obama said yesterday.
Ms Eckert, 57, became a prominent member of Voices of September 11, a group providing services for those affected by the attacks and promoting policy reforms on prevention, preparedness and responses to terrorism.
Her husband, Sean Rooney, died in the World Trade Centre in New York, destroyed after al Qaeda hijackers seized jetliners and crashed them into the two towers in 2001.
The Buffalo News quoted Mrs Eckert's sister Sue Bourque as saying she was on the plane that crashed on Thursday evening, killing all 49 on board and one person on the ground. "We know she was on that plane, and now she's with him," Ms Bourque said.
Mrs Eckert, who lived in Connecticut, was travelling to Buffalo to celebrate what would have been her husband's 58th birthday, the newspaper said.
"She was a strong and passionate voice for the families of the 9/11 tragedy," US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said in a statement expressing condolences for the victims.