Sadly after more than a year in the United States with no airline fatalities (despite close calls like planes landing in rivers or with both engines on fire) we heard news today that this run of good luck has ended.

A Continental flight from Newark to Buffalo crashed into a house about five miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Thursday night, killing 49 people, officials said.

The plane carried 44 passengers and a crew of 4, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Ted Lopatkiewicz, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. The Erie County executive, Chris Collins, later said at a news conference that 49 people, including one on the ground, were killed.