EAST HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A small plane crashed into a residential neighborhood a few blocks from an airport while trying to land, setting fire to two houses and likely killing up to six people, authorities said.

Just before noon Friday, the multi-engine, propeller-driven plane struck two small homes near Tweed New Haven Airport. The aircraft's left wing lodged in one house and its right wing in the other.

Late Friday, officials from a number of agencies were still at the scene trying to determine how many people had been killed. Officials said the total was between four and six. The victims of the crash have not been identified.

"We haven't recovered anybody at this point, and we presume there is going to be a very bad outcome," East Haven fire Chief Douglas Jackson said Friday.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Robert Gretz said at a news conference Friday night there were casualty reports of two or three people in the plane and two or three people in one of the homes. He said the reports were unconfirmed and that local and state authorities were at the scene looking for victims.

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A firefighter surveys the scene of a small plane crash, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in East Haven, Conn. T …

Shortly after the crash, officials had said at least three people were missing: the pilot and two children, ages 1 and 13, in one of the houses. Later, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said the plane also may have been carrying two passengers. However, officials were still trying to verify whether that was true.

Less than two hours later, Malloy said rescuers had spotted two bodies, including one of an adult, but hadn't recovered them. The plane's fuselage had entered one of the houses, and the recovery effort was focusing on the home's basement, he said.

Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. said later that the houses were still unstable and crews had not completed a full search.

The 10-seater plane, a Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B, flew out of Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and crashed at 11:25 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Tweed's airport manager, Lori Hoffman-Soares, said the pilot had been in communication with air traffic control and hadn't issued any distress calls.

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A firefighter surveys the scene of a small plane crash Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in East Haven, Conn. Th …

"All we know is that it missed the approach and continued on," she said.

A neighbor, David Esposito, said he heard a loud noise and then a thump: "No engine noise, nothing."

"A woman was screaming her kids were in there," he said.

Esposito, a retired teacher, said he ran into the upstairs of the house, where the woman believed her children were, but couldn't find them after frantically searching a crib and closets. He returned downstairs to search some more, but he dragged the woman out when the flames became too strong.

Wilson Idrovo said he was working on a house nearby when his son said: "Daddy, the airplane is falling down."

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Firefighters work at the scene of a small plane crash, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in East Haven, Conn. Th …

Idrovo said he went into the house but couldn't get into a room where the plane had crashed.

Angela Wordie was on her deck taking in towels when she noticed a plane making a strange sound.

"It kind of was gliding," she said. "The next thing I know it hit the house."

Maturo, the mayor, said a priest was with the woman whose children were feared dead, and he offered sympathy to the family.

"It's total devastation in the back of the home," he said.

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Firefighters work the scene of a plane crash, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in East Haven, Conn. The multi-e …

Multiple people are killed when a small aircraft strikes homes near New Haven's airport, officials say.
'A very bad outcome'

CASCADE, Idaho (AP) — The search for 16-year-old Hanna Anderson and her suspected abductor, 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio, has spanned three states and thousands of miles.

But now that law enforcement officers are at their closest yet to finding the pair, they face perhaps the most challenging search area of all.

The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is the largest roadless area in the Lower 48 states, sprawling across central Idaho and reaching north to the Montana border. To call the mountainous terrain rugged is an understatement.

"It's called the River of No Return for a reason," said Mike Medberry, a 57-year-old writer and backpacking enthusiast who hiked in the area three summers ago. "This is country that is really up and down. It's harsh and rugged, with steep terrain, lots of downed logs and thick brush."

DiMaggio is suspected of killing Hannah's mother Christina Anderson, 44, and her 8-year-old brother Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found Sunday night in DiMaggio's burning house in California near the Mexico border.

Ethan Anderson's remains were not positively identified until Friday night, when the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said its crime lab had used DNA to determine Ethan's identity. An Amber Alert was initially issued for both children.

California Amber Alert Suspect's Car Found in Idah …Play video."

DiMaggio's car was found Friday morning about 40 miles east of the tiny town of Cascade, parked where the dirt road ends and the Sand Creek trailhead enters the wilderness area.

The discovery came about two days after a horseback rider reported seeing the man and girl hiking in the area. Ada County Sheriff's department spokeswoman Andrea Dearden, who is helping the Valley County sheriff's department handle the case, said the rider didn't realize the pair were being sought until he got home and recognized the pair in news reports.

There have been no other reported sightings of the pair since Wednesday, but the discovery launched a massive search in the southwest corner of The Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.

More than 100 people were searching on foot and on horseback or were on their way to join the search of an area that Ada County sheriff's spokesman Patrick Orr described Friday evening as covering 320 square miles.

"A missing hiker in the foothills is different than searching for a murder suspect, and the risk of that alone comes as a challenge to the search teams," Dearden said. "When you have a square mile on flatter land, or even water, you can create a grid and literally search every inch. But when you have terrain like this, and this much land, you just can't do that."

The search area is bisected by the Middle Fork the Salmon River, a wild waterway that winds through steep canyons and dense forests. The river is extremely popular for recreationists and floaters, some of whom will pay up to $2,000 for multi-day, guided trips down the river.

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LAKESIDE, Calif. -- A search for a man suspected of abducting a 16-year-old girl after abandoning h …

But away from the river, it's easy to disappear, said Jared Hopkinson, the owner of Rocky Mountain River Tours in Stanley, Idaho.

Hopkinson said a backpacker can hike for days without seeing a soul — not a fellow camper, not a rafter, not one of the maybe-mythical Idaho hermits that river guides are fond of telling stories about.

"If you wanted to go days without being seen, that's the place to do it," said Hopkinson. "There's a few river lodges that are accessible by fixed wing plane and raft, but other than that it is untouched by mankind, the same way it was when there were dinosaurs."

This time of year, the temperatures generally dip into the 40s at night and reach into the 80s during the day, said Rob Terry, the mayor of Cascade and a backcountry pilot who volunteers with the fire department, often helping injured recreationists trapped in the wilderness area.

"Fortunately, it's summer and not winter, and fortunately they're in an area with water," Terry said. "Just a couple weeks ago there was somebody who was lost while climbing in that area, probably within 10 miles of where he is now."

Rescue crews were able to locate the climber and bring him to safety — but that search was simplified by the fact that the climber stayed in one place and waited for help, he said.

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Map locates Boulevard, Calif., where the bodies of missing children were found; 1c x 2 inches; 46.5 …

"There's the key. If he doesn't want to be found, he just drops off the side of the trail," Terry said. "It would be very easy if you want to get lost. But unless he was really planning some back country type thing, he may not have carried a lot of food. And while there's water, it's suspect — it has giardia and stuff in it. Any knowledgeable backpacker would carry a water filtration system with them."

That's also assuming DiMaggio stayed within the wilderness area. Dearden said officials don't know if DiMaggio had rafting equipment available or if he could have left the wilderness by hiking out another trailhead. No cars have been reported stolen or missing in the area, but some rafters and campers may leave a vehicle parked for a week or more, so a stolen vehicle wouldn't necessarily be discovered right away.

Police have set up check points in the area where the car was found and near other nearby trailheads.

Law enforcement officials in San Diego have noted that DiMaggio bought camping gear a few weeks ago.

DiMaggio was close to the family. Brett Anderson has described him as a best friend and said his children thought of him as an uncle.

Authorities have said DiMaggio had an "unusual infatuation" with the 16-year-old, although the father said he never saw any strange behavior. If he had, he said, "we would have quashed that relationship in an instant."

___

Spagat reported from San Diego. AP writers Bob Jablon and John Antczak contributed to this report from Los Angeles. AP writer Todd Dvorak contributed from Boise.

Manhunt continues in Calif. kidnapping case

Police positively identify the body of 8-year-old Ethan Anderson, whose mother was killed and whose sister is still missing. Suspect's car found

While President Obama has overseen a largely secret war that has killed dozens of top al Qaeda commanders since 2009, one master terrorist has managed to elude U.S. forces: Nasser al-Wuhayshi.

Today, Wuhayshi is a top target for the United States, after intelligence agencies monitored a conference call last week that served as a virtual board meeting for al Qaeda’s central leadership and the group's global affiliates—and in which the Yemeni-born jihadist was promoted to the position of general manager for al Qaeda operations. At the request of its sources, The Daily Beast is withholding details about the technology al Qaeda used to conduct the conference call. U.S. intelligence officers say Wuhayshi is leading an attack plan that could call on resources from al Qaeda’s franchises across North Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia.

Known at times as Abu-Bashir, Wuhayshi was one of Osama bin Laden’s closest associates, a top lieutenant who worked with the terror ringleader in the 1990s. When al Qaeda took up residence in Afghanistan, Wuhayshi was picked to lead of one of the group’s four training camps in Tarnak Farms, where bin Laden himself often stayed. In his 2010 memoir, Guarding bin Laden: My Life in al Qaeda, former bodyguard Nasser al-Bahri wrote that Wuhayshi would often stay with bin Laden in the mornings as he worked in his Tarnak Farms office in the months and years before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.

Wuhayshi, who had studied Islam in Yemen, was sometimes referred to as bin Laden’s personal secretary during that period. When U.S.-led forces struck Afghanistan, al-Bahri said Wuhayshi and Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s deputy at the time and now the leader of al Qaeda, stuck with bin Laden when he was on the run. “During his flight to the caves in Tora Bora, where he would face 12 days of bombardment from the Americans, bin Laden only wanted a tiny number of his most faithful followers with him, to minimize the risk of being spotted,” al-Bahri wrote. “Ayman al-Zawahiri, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, and Hamza al-Ghamdi stayed with him, along with a handful of Saudi guards.”

When al Qaeda’s senior leadership fled the country, Zawahiri and bin Laden holed up in Pakistan. But al-Wuhayshi and others traveled to Iran, according to al-Bahri. While in Iran, al-Bahri wrote that the al Qaeda leaders initially received assistance from Sunni Muslims in the province of Baluchistan, who helped them escape to countries around the gulf region. However, Iranian authorities kept al Qaeda officials in “assigned residences in an area that was under surveillance.” While another al Qaeda leader in Iran, Saif al-Adel, was free to marry an Iranian woman and even publish pieces online, Wuhayshi was not so lucky. The Iranians extradited Wuhayshi to Yemen, where he was arrested and sent to prison.

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FILE - This file image provided by IntelCenter on Wednesday Dec. 30, 2009 and taken from a video rel …

According to Gregory Johnsen’s 2012 book, The Last Refuge: Yemen, al Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia,Wuhayshi emerged as something of a spiritual leader to al Qaeda militants in the prison. By 2006, the cell had a plan. Wuhayshi and others began to dig a tunnel out of the prison—to a nearby mosque. Johnsen writes that Wuhayshi and al Qaeda operatives would often loudly recite passages from the Quran to disguise the sound of their makeshift shovels and picks. On February 3, 2006, Wuhayshi and 22 other prisoners emerged from the tunnel and into the neighboring mosque, according to Johnsen, and then filed out into the street in twos and threes.

The jailbreak proved to be the genesis of al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, now known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In 2007, Wuhayshi was elected as the group’s leader, but he was ready to move on. According to an August 2010 letter found during the U.S. raid on bin Laden’s headquarters in Abbottabad, Pakistan, bin Laden politely rejected Wuhayshi’s request for Anwar al-Awlaki, who became the first American-born member of al Qaeda to be targeted in a drone strike, to be promoted to be the leader of the Yemen affiliate.

“How excellent would it be if you ask brother Basir [Wuhayshi] to send us the résumé, in detail and lengthy, of brother Anwar al-‘Awlaqi, as well as the facts he relied on when recommending him, while informing him that his recommendation is considered,” bin Laden wrote, in the letter to Attiya Abdul Rahman, an al Qaeda leader who was killed in an August 2011 drone strike. “However, we would like to be reassured more. For example, we here become reassured of the people when they go to the line and get examined there.”

One U.S. intelligence official told The Daily Beast that Wuhayshi had designs on a more senior role in al Qaeda. The letter that prompted bin Laden’s response has not been declassified.

After bin Laden’s death in 2011, Wuhayshi and his affiliate became one of the first groups within al Qaeda to endorse Zawahiri for the top position. Bruce Riedel, an expert on al Qaeda at the Brookings Institution and a former senior CIA analyst, said Wuhayshi had a connection with the Egyptian-born commander. “He has been loyal to Zawahiri,” Riedel said. “They were quick to endorse him in 2011. I don’t know the grounds for it, those incidents back in Afghanistan before 9/11, but there was a bond between the two of them,” he said.

Former Homeland Security Secretary on Al Qaeda 2.0Play video."

That bond appears to have paid off. In the virtual meeting the U.S. monitored last week among al Qaeda leaders, Zawahiri promoted Wuhayshi to the post of “Ma’sul al-Amm,” an Arabic phrase that translates to “general manager.” It means Wuhayshi now will be able to call on the resources of al Qaeda’s affiliates throughout the Muslim world, according to one U.S. intelligence official. It also means the U.S. military and the CIA will be redoubling their efforts to find him.

Related from The Daily Beast

U.S. sets its sights on 'new bin Laden'

Nasser al-Wuhayshi's promotion to "general manager" means he'll have widespread power within al-Qaida.
Previous jailbreak

On the Radar

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff says the idea that al Qaeda has been “eliminated” is “overly optimistic.”

As U.S. embassies across the Middle East and North Africa remain shuttered following intelligence of possible terrorist attacks, Chertoff tells “On the Radar” that the most pressing threat seems to be posed by Yemen, which he says has the most active al Qaeda-affiliated network.

“Although they're looking at a broad geographic area as potentially a target that most of this really is centered on Yemen,” Chertoff says, when asked about the State Department’s recent evacuation of all non-emergency staff from that country.

“Not surprisingly, the core al Qaeda, while it may be concerned for its safety, is still functioning,” Chertoff says. “We saw that with some of what emerged when Bin Laden was killed and they took some of that material out of Abbottabad [Pakistan]. We may have forced them to disperse but I still think the network continues to operate.”

Al Qaeda has strengthened in recent weeks, Chertoff says, because of a series of successful prison breaks that have allowed the terrorist network to “replenish their ranks” and boost morale.

“We’re talking about battle-hardened terrorists who are now out and about, and presumably joining their old comrades,” Chertoff says. “So they have managed to do two things. First, they've managed to replenish their ranks. Second, they've sent a message to other terrorists that if they get captured they're going to get released someday.”

The nearly 2,000 al Qaeda-affiliated militants estimated to have escaped during the recent prison breaks in Iraq, Pakistan, and Libya could now fill a variety of roles for al Qaeda, Chertoff said.

“It's possible they could be suicide bombers," Chertoff says. "It's possible they could become combatants; some of them may have capabilities in terms of bomb making, which is always a concern. Some of them may have picked up information while they were in captivity that's useful intelligence for the terrorists, themselves,” Chertoff says.

The threat of future prison breaks, Chertoff says, is also one of the reasons the U.S. government finds it “difficult to close Guantanamo.”

“Guantanamo a place that is not going to be subject to a jail release, and so there's a natural reluctance to send hardened terrorists back to other parts of the world where they then could ultimately be freed by prison breaks,” Chertoff says.

For more of the interview with the former secretary of homeland security, including whether he believes the United States is safer today than it was before Sept. 11, 2001, check out this episode of “On the Radar."

ABC's Brian Hartman, Betsy Klein, Patrick O'Gara, and Gary Westphalen contributed to this episode.

Al-Qaida prison escapes' dual purpose

The gambits have helped the terror network do more than simply replenish its ranks, says a former DHS chief.
Increasing the threat

Controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced that he is arming his deputies with AR-15 style rifles and ordering the deputies to carry weapons even when they are off duty.

"We live in a violent society, even here in Maricopa County, and across our nation, and the least we can do is to arm our deputies, let's say with enough firepower to fight back."

But the news that he is requiring the deputies to be armed and essentially on duty at all times is noteworthy.

"My deputies will carry guns 24 hours a day, even off duty. If they see any incident occurring, they will take action anywhere in this valley," he said.

Arpaio says the 400 new Smith & Wesson rifles were purchased using money obtained from arrests. The 81-year-old self-described "America's toughest sheriff" is no stranger to controversy, stemming primarily from his strict enforcement of the state's immigration laws.

Local affiliate ABC15 reports that the deputies will be required to carry only a handgun at all times, meaning they will have to employ the AR-15 style rifles only while on duty.

“While this decision may seem controversial to some in the public and among other law enforcement agencies, I have extreme confidence in the training and professionalism of the men and women deputies in the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office,” Arpaio said at a news conference on Thursday.

Fox10 notes that the announcement came on the same day that a Sheriff’s Office employee, Jorge Vargas, was shot and killed outside his home while off duty.

The Sheriff’s Office says that three deputies have been shot and killed in the line of duty over the past two years.