A small airliner carrying at least 50 people crashed and burst into flames on Sunday shortly after taking off from Lexington's Blue Grass Airport, killing all but one on board, officials said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash of Comair Flight 5191, which was bound for Atlanta, though visibility was good and it was not raining at the time, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

There was no indication that terrorism was involved, a US Transportation Security Administration official said.

One man survived and was in critical condition, a University of Kentucky Hospital spokesman said. It was not immediately known if the survivor was a passenger or a crew member.

The plane was carrying 47 passengers and a three person crew but may also have been carrying an off-duty crew member.

The local coroner, Gary Ginn, said the fire burned "very hot." All the bodies had been removed, he said.

A Federal Aviation Administration official said the plane crashed in a farm field in rugged terrain and the fuselage was largely intact

"We cannot speculate on the cause of the accident," Comair President Don Bornhorst told reporters. "We will support the investigation."

The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the crash investigation.

"We don't have any information that it's security-related," said TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis. "I don't have any information that it's anything other than a mechanical issue."

Local media said the plane, a Bombardier Canadair CRJ-100 jet that seats 52 passengers, may have departed from a runway that was too short -- half the length of the airport's longest 7,000-foot runway.

But Bornhorst said that was strictly "rumor or speculation that would not be good for any of us to go down right now."

The plane that crashed was acquired new in January 2001 by Comair, a regional carrier operated by Delta Air Lines, and had a clean maintenance record, Bornhorst said. The aircraft had performed 12,048 takeoff and landing "cycles," he said.

The crew was well rested and the weather did not appear to be a factor, he said.

The plane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were both recovered, according to media reports.

Flights resumed at Lexington's 64-year-old airport, which serves half a dozen carriers, about four hours after the crash.

Kentucky officials were on hand at a staging area at the adjacent Keeneland Race Course trying to determine if state workers might have been on board the flight.

Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher was in Germany at an equestrian conference and his press secretary said he was "aware of the tragic incident and saddened."