George Black, an official of the National Transportation Safety Board, told a press conference here that the death toll came from the Pulaski County coroner's office.

The dead included the ill-fated plane's captain, a 20-year American Airlines veteran identified as Richard Buschmann.

In Forth Worth, Texas, American Airlines vice-president Bob Baker told a press conference the airline still did not have an exact count of how many people were killed in the accident.

He said the airline had a partial list of 118 passengers who survived and was trying to ascertain what happened to the remaining 21 passengers.

The plane was carrying 139 passengers and six crew on a flight from Dallas when it skidded off a rain-slickened runway and burst into flames shortly before midnight on Tuesday asthe area was hit by a severe thunderstorm.