Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote in message ...
[snip]

As an aside, I saw a women being interviewed who said she saw smoke *above*
the
plane right before the collision. Do you suppose they tried to deploy the
chute
and the smoke she saw was the rocket firing?

Could be:

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?...UVFeXkzJmZnYmV
sN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3MDA0MzgxJnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFR Xl5Mg==
(excuse the hideous URL)
....
Hersman said at the late night news conference that the charge that deploys
the parachute had fired, but that the parachute remained in a "packed
position."
**********************

Of course, eyewitnesses aren't always reliable, and the charges could have
gone off on impact (just guessing).

- Rick