NEW YORK (AFP) updated version

- An American Airlines Airbus-300 packed with 246 passengers and nine crew slammed into into a residential area of New York just after taking off from John F Kennedy International Airport.

The jet was en route to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, when it crashed, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.

An FAA spokesman said there was "no indication of a terrorist act," but that "all options are open at this time."

Thick columns of black smoke belched into the sky from the crash site in the New York borough of Queens opposite Manhattan.

There were no immediate details of casualties on the ground, though television reports said a number of houses were on fire.

Eyewitness interviewed on local television said an engine on the plane was on fire before the aircraft nosedived into the residential area.

The crash came just two months after two commercial jetliners flown on suicide missions by hijackers demolished the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center on Sept 11.

Fears of terrorist act

New York authorities immediately launched a massive security operation, amid fears the crash could be a terrorist act.

All airports, bridges and tunnels connecting Manhattan island with other parts of the city were closed. The United Nations building where the UN General Assembly annual debate is taking place was immediately sealed off.

On the streets, bewildered citizens, still coming to terms with the carnage of the Sept 11 attacks, gathered around televisions in shops, and police officers seeking details about the crash.

New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who shepherded the city through the last tragedy was en route to the site, officials said.