News Web sites said on Monday they took steps to cope with increased demand after an American Airlines jet crashed in New York, having learned several lessons from a surge in traffic that disrupted many Web sites following the deadly Sept. 11 attacks.
Web site managers and analysts said the spike in traffic on Monday was not nearly as powerful or sustained as on Sept. 11 and the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Most noticeable slowdowns occurred at the New York Times Web site and at MSNBC.com.
The New York Times average times jumped from 2.5-3.5 seconds to 23.69 seconds, providing only 5.29 percent availability within the hour of the crash MSNBC's site also slowed significantly to 26.03 seconds and 63.46 percent availability within the hour of the crash. MSNBC addressed the problem by stripping its site of several advertisements and other features.
"A lot of news Web sites learned from Sept. 11," said Denise Garcia, analyst with research firm GartnerG2. She said several Web sites were storing articles about Monday's plane crash on other servers so that the additional traffic would not tax overall operations.
News source: Reuters
Web site managers and analysts said the spike in traffic on Monday was not nearly as powerful or sustained as on Sept. 11 and the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Most noticeable slowdowns occurred at the New York Times Web site and at MSNBC.com.
The New York Times average times jumped from 2.5-3.5 seconds to 23.69 seconds, providing only 5.29 percent availability within the hour of the crash MSNBC's site also slowed significantly to 26.03 seconds and 63.46 percent availability within the hour of the crash. MSNBC addressed the problem by stripping its site of several advertisements and other features.
"A lot of news Web sites learned from Sept. 11," said Denise Garcia, analyst with research firm GartnerG2. She said several Web sites were storing articles about Monday's plane crash on other servers so that the additional traffic would not tax overall operations.
News source: Reuters
Eye witness accounts :-
Source: ABC NewsJackie Power, an eyewitness, said she and her husband were walking their dog on this clear morning in Rockaway when she reported seeing an explosion and flash on the right side of the plane where the wing meets the fuselage, and the the plane just plunged straight down.
"There was what looked liked fire or an explosion and debris fell from that side of the plane and it just plummeted and we heard this enormous crash," she said. "I've never seen anything so terrible."
Another eyewitness said he saw an engine falling off before the plane hit the ground.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told WABC-TV that emergency crews faced two debris fields in Queens, one where the engine apparently fell and one where the rest of the plane fell.
Based on the sketchy details emerging from the crash site, ABCNEWS aviation consultant John Nance said two explanations are possible for the jet's downing. There could have been a loss of control of the aircraft due to an internal explosion for mechanical reasons, or there could have been an explosion of an incendiary device from inside the plane.
"Indeed we have either possibility, we can't go one direction or another at this point," Nance said. "We must wait for the cockpit voice recorder in order to find out what happened."
Aviation experts caution that initial eyewitness accounts of plane crashes are not always accurate.
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