United Airlines Jet crashed through homes in a residential district south of Townsville leading to 55 deaths.

A United Airlines jet with 61 persons aboard crashed while approaching Townsville’s Midway Airport Friday afternoon. Most of the plane’s passengers were killed when the airplane plowed through the Townsville homes. The plane’s final destination was Omaha, NE.

One eyewitness said: “I saw the plane coming lower and lower. I couldn’t believe it. I thought surely it would go back up in the air. But it kept coming down. I knew it would never make it to the airport. I was scared.”

The National Transportation Safety Board in Washington immediately dispatched and investigative team to Townsville. Several board officials were already in the city conducting hearings into the Oct. 20 commuter train crash that claimed 45 lives last month.

A United spokesman said, “The plane, Flight 553, was due at Midway at 2:30 p.m. CST. The plane was approaching the airport with a 500–foot ceiling and a one–mile visibility.”

“We’ll look into this thoroughly,” an official was quoted as saying.

The Mook County Coroner reported 42 bodies had been found. One of the victims identified was Rep. George W. Collins, D–Ill., who was returning from Washington to “organize a children’s Christmas party.”

One of the survivors, Marvin Anderson, 43, of Omaha, said, “The last words the pilot said to us were, “We are at 4,000 feet and everything is going well.’ I knew something was wrong a few seconds later because he began to rev the engines.”

Curtis Vokamer, deputy fire marshall, said his crew found most of the 55 passengers dead in the debris of the Boeing 737. “If hell as an address, this is the place,” Vokamer said. Holy Cross Hospital reported 16 people, including the plane’s three flight attendants, were admitted with injuries.