Editors last night considered ways to put the late-breaking Buffalo plane crash on Page One. As deadlines near, production challenges become a key factor. If we miss deadlines, more copies of earlier editions run and fewer readers see the story at all. Or papers are late off the presses and home delivery is delayed and people might set off to work and school without seeing the paper.

Here’s a note from news editor Ron Wade, who was in charge of the newsroom last night.

We killed the Pope story on page 2 to get in the Buffalo commuter plane crash story for the 12:30 a.m. lift.

We killed a couple of rails to make that a good-sized top rail.

There was consideration of whether we should kill out most of the rail and make it a standalone 1A story, or jump it into the Pope hole. But we ended up making it the lede rail at the top of the page.

There will be great video in the morning, including something already posted on YouTube, and there will certainly be tales from residents and witnesses for the Saturday tab.

Excellent reaction and work by copy editor Lacey Burnette alerting us to the crash and working the story for the lift.

So with the decision to place the story on A2 to ensure making deadlines and reaching more readers, here’s what appeared at the top of the first column on Page One:

TOP NEWS
49 KILLED
IN AIR CRASH
A commuter plane crashed into a home near the Buffalo airport Thursday night, killing all 48 aboard and one person on the ground, officials said. Continental Airlines Flight 3407 was en route from Newark, N.J., to Buffalo when it went down in light snow about 10:20 p.m., in Clarence Center.
NATION | A2

A check of our AP Exchange service shows this advisory moved at 10:53 p.m. our time:

BC-NY–APNewsAlert
NYS police say commuter plane has crashed into home near Buffalo; no information on injuries.

At 11:41 p.m. our time, this advisory moved:

BC-APNewsAlert
Emergency coordinator: ‘Multiple fatalities’ in Continental Airlines crash near Buffalo

At 11:59 a.m. our time, an advisory said the plane had crashed into a home and was burning.

Here’s a link to Editor & Publishers account of how the Buffalo News staff handled the breaking story.