Audio: the air traffic recording

All 48 passengers and crew, plus one person on the ground, have been killed after a passenger plane nosedived into a house near New York and exploded into a fireball.

In the first fatal crash involving a US commercial airliner for two and a half years, Continental Connection flight 3407 came down in Clarence Center, about five minutes before it was due to land at Buffalo, New York state.

The plane – a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 operated by Virginia-based Colgan Air – was on an internal flight from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, and was trying to land in light snow and fog at 10.20pm (0320 GMT) last night.

Recordings of audio exchanges between the control tower and pilot, released today on the internet, provide no clue about the reason for the crash and appear to indicate a sudden and unexpected plunge to the ground.

In the recorded exchanges, the female pilot can be heard reporting her position normally when requested by the local control tower. However, when at 2,300ft she then suddenly fails to respond any further and the flight disappears from radar screens.

As the tower made frantic efforts to contact her – including asking other pilots flying nearby to see if they could see the plane – the flight was plunging into the property in Clarence.

Dave Bissonette, the Clarence emergency control director, said: "It landed on the house, clearly a direct hit. It is remarkable that it is only one house. It could easily have wiped out the entire neighbourhood."

Chris Collins, the Erie County Executive, said that the first firefighters at the scene immediately began a search for bodies despite the soaring temperatures. "They were shouting out to see if there were any survivors on the plane. Truly a very heroic effort, but there were no survivors."

As the plane hit the house, the plane was said to have been carrying 5,000lb of fuel and burst into a fireball on impact, killing all 44 passengers and four crew on board, as well as one civilian believed to have been upstairs in the house.

In what appeared to have been an incredible escape, two others in the house at the time managed to flee the property.

The Buffalo News named the pair as Karen Wielinski, 57, and her daughter, Jill, 22, who the newspaper said were taken to Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital and were in a stable condition. Reports suggested that they were on the ground floor at the time.

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