A U.S. Transportation Department official told CNN on Monday that early indications pointed to a "catastrophic engine event" as the cause of the crash, although other causes, including terrorism, had not been ruled out.

At least 262 people were killed Monday morning when the Airbus A300 plunged into the Rockaway neighborhood of Queens three minutes after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. (Timeline)

The plane broke apart after takeoff, raining flames and debris on a neighborhood that lost 60 residents in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The crash damaged at least 11 houses, destroying four and causing serious damage to four others.

The plane carried 251 passengers and a crew of nine. At least five people were reported missing on the ground after the crash. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told CNN on Tuesday that 262 bodies had been recovered from the crash site. The number was revised down from 265 people with no explanation.

Investigators are preparing to ship the plane's two engines to another location where they will be disassembled, National Transportation Safety Board member George Black said Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America." He said investigators should be able to determine quickly if some type of catastrophic engine failure led to the crash.

Black told CNN that investigators were interested in looking at radar data from area airports that were tracking Flight 587. He said the data would show the sequence in which the jet broke apart, possibly offering clues to what happened when the plane fell from the sky.

Families gather to grieve
Family members of the victims gathered Tuesday to mourn at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan -- the same place where many went after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"I want them to know that we're there to support them, to help them and to assist them in every single way that we can," Giuliani said after visiting the center Tuesday with New York Gov. George Pataki. The city, state and federal government are "all trying to work together to make this as easy as a difficult situation like this can be."

Pataki added, "All of us ... are and will continue to stand with these families throughout their times of need."

He said Kennedy airport was operating at 65 percent to 70 percent of normal capacity and that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey expected it to be back at full operation by Tuesday afternoon. The other two major New York-area airports, LaGuardia and Newark, returned to full operation a few hours after Monday's crash.

I would like to see federal employees doing the screening at airports. Those of us who travel a great deal won't feel safe until we see well trained, competent people doing the screening. I like the idea of using the highly experienced intelligence agents who are no longer on active duty. They would have the kind of training and experience that is necessary for this important task.

Also, since a number of airport security badges are missing, all new color coded badges should be issued, and the old badges should be made invalid.

A Japan Airlines flight was cleared for takeoff about two minutes and 20 seconds before the American Airlines flight, but it actually took off one minute and 45 seconds ahead of Flight 587, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Marion Blakey said Wednesday.

Federal Aviation Administration regulations require four nautical miles, or two minutes, of separation between departing flights.

Officials described the the JAL 747-400 as one of the biggest aircraft made, weighing 800,000 pounds. Being so large, officials said, the plane may take longer on the runway and would create a more intense wake turbulence.

Blakey said preliminary analysis of the flight paths of both planes showed that the JAL flight was about four nautical miles out from the American Airlines flight and traveling 800 feet higher. Wind conditions at the time of Flight 587's takeoff, she said, were "consistent with a wake vortex encounter" -- a phenomenon some experts characterize as a "horizontal tornado" that can cause an aircraft to go out of control.

The American pilot was heard commenting on wake turbulence about 30 seconds before the cockpit voice recorder shut down.

An FAA incident report shows the same plane that crashed Monday experienced severe turbulence over the Caribbean island of Martinique in 1994 when 46 passengers and flight attendants were injured.

NTSB board member George Black Jr. said the Airbus A300's maintenance records are being reviewed as part of the investigation. Preliminary reports, he said, indicate there were no delayed maintenance items noted in the log.

The jet took off for Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from John F. Kennedy International Airport shortly after 9 a.m. EST Monday but remained aloft less than three minutes. It crashed into a residential neighborhood in the Rockaway section of the New York City borough of Queens, killing all 260 people on board. In addition, five people from the neighborhood were killed in the fiery impact.

Black said investigators are wading through "a good wealth of data" contained on the flight data recorder after the manufacturer was able to fix a damaged memory module. That data should indicate how much force the turbulence put on the aircraft, how the pilot reacted and when the rudder separated from the aircraft, former NTSB Vice Chairman Bob Francis told CNN.

Black said the recorder contains 81 hours of data that continues past the point where pilots lost control of the plane "but ends before impact."

The plane's tail section and both engines separated from the body of the jet before it hit the ground. Whether the plane's tail section sheared off before both engines detached could be a significant clue, investigators said.

"The pieces of the tail were first in the debris trail, which generally indicates they came off very early," Black said.

The tail, pulled virtually intact from the waters of Jamaica Bay half a mile short of the main crash site Tuesday, showed no obvious signs of an explosion. The aircraft's rudder fell closer to the crash site.

Black said the fittings that hold the tail fin onto the fuselage was last inspected in December 1999. He noted that prior to the plane's delivery to American Airlines in 1988, the left center fitting was found to be faulty, and the manufacturer repaired and reinforced it.

One of the engines landed in a gas station parking lot and the other crushed a boat parked in a residential driveway

Black said the engines will be taken to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they will be taken apart and examined.

The cockpit voice recorder revealed a rattling noise from the jet's airframe less than two minutes into the flight, followed by a report of turbulence. A second rattle was followed seconds later by a call from the co-pilot, who was at the controls, for maximum power. The cockpit conversation then suggested loss of control of the aircraft -- and the recording ended at two minutes, 24 seconds.

Black said a spectral analysis of the cockpit voice recorder revealed that the engines can be heard running as the pilots talk about losing control of the plane -- a clue that could help investigators determine the sequence of the aircraft's breakup.

More information may come from interviews with the pilot of a business plane who was heard by ground control describing the incident as it happened. Black also said the plane may have been caught by a government surveillance camera.

The known dead included 251 passengers, five of them infants, and nine crew members. Most of those aboard the plane were Dominicans heading home or to visit relatives

At least 11 houses were damaged in Monday's crash, including four that were destroyed and four others seriously damaged. The tragedy further battered a community that was dealing with the deaths of more than 60 residents in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Investigators said they had no evidence indicating the crash was "anything but an accident" but also said they could not rule out sabotage.