The city of New York has suffered another blow borne of a commercial jet.

American Airlines flight 587 en route to the Dominican Republic with 255 people aboard crashed into a Queens neighborhood, 10 minutes after taking off from Kennedy Airport.

Government officials were quick to assure the people of New York and the U.S. that the crash most likely was caused by mechanical failure, not a terrorist action. The claim that a mechanical failure likely caused the crash came after eyewitnesses reported seeing flames coming from the engine of the plane before it began to break up.

It isn’t likely that a bomb or explosive device was located within the fuselage of the plane, dramatically reducing the likelihood that a terrorist action caused the crash. Also, CNN reported that the jet had dumped some of its fuel into the Jamaican Bay, which is standard procedure in an emergency situation. The dumping of fuel into a body of water dramatically reduces the risk of explosions and fire after a plane crash. The pilots must have had some warning that there was a problem before the crash in order to be able to jettison some of the more than 16,000 gallons of volatile aviation fuel the aircraft is capable of carrying. If there was a bomb on the plane, it is unlikely that any warning would have allowed enough time for the pilots to jettison the fuel.

Because of reports that flames were seen coming from the engine prior to any other obvious problems seen from the ground, the incident probably was caused by a malfunction in the jet engine area. The only way for a terrorist to cause such a malfunction in a jet engine would be through sabotage before the plane left the tarmac. When a plane is on the ground, its mechanical spaces are vulnerable, but once in the air, most of these spaces are inaccessible.

Government officials say it is unlikely that the crash was caused by terrorists, but are not ruling terrorist activities out of the investigation.

Fortunately, the flight data recorder was recovered, and the data is being analyzed by the Federal Aviation Administration in hopes that the information can help investigators determine exactly what went wrong.

Regardless of the cause of the crash, its effects will likely weigh heavily on the country’s already reeling travel industries. Most Americans were just beginning to feel comfortable flying again with the addition of heightened security at the nation’s airports.

A worldwide economic recession began almost overnight after the attacks on Sept. 11, and few industries were harder hit than the travel industry, primarily aviation. Airlines have been announcing cutbacks across the industry, including decommissioning many aircraft and laying off much of the airlines’ supporting staff.

The Chicago Tribune reported that American Airlines was planning to ground about 70 aircraft in the coming months, which amounts to about 10 percent of its fleet, most of which would be the older Boeing 727s.

Many other airlines have been decommissioning their aircraft since the slowdown in air travel after Sept. 11, and sentencing them to lives in airplane graveyards, most of which sit forgotten in the deserts of the Western U.S, the Chicago Tribune reported.

It is likely that much of the public’s trust in the aviation industry will take years, if not decades, to be restored. The effects on the economy of the U.S. is yet to be seen, but judging by the effects the attacks on Sept. 11 had on the travel industry, the future does not look bright.