NewYork - The plane that spectacularly crashed into the Hudson River in New York already had problems before the accident, the news channel CNN reported Tuesday citing three passengers.

The three reportedly said that they had already heard loud blows on the same US Airways plane two days before the accident last Thursday. The crew announced an emergency landing, but then were said to have decided against it.

Both US Airways and the authorities that were investigating the crash - which miraculously left all 155 passengers and crew unharmed - declined to confirm the reports.

Pilot Chesley Sullenberger ("Sully") and his crew had been invited to Tuesday's historic inauguration of Barack Obama as US president.

US Airways reportedly paid each of the plane's passengers 5,000 dollars for their lost luggage.

Passenger Steve Jeffrey - who flew from New York to Charlotte, in the state of North Carolina in that same plane just two days before the accident - said he heard an unusually loud noise 20 minutes after take-off.

"It seemed so loud, like luggage was hitting the side but times a thousand," the businessman was quoted as saying.

The red lights started going on, he said.

John Hodock, another passenger in Jeffrey's flight, did not just speak of loud noises, but also of flames which emerged from the plane's right engine.

"The pilot at first told us that we were going to make an emergency landing, but after about five minutes, continued the flight to Charlotte," he told CNN by e-mail.

A woman whose name was not made public reportedly spoke of a "loud banging sound".

A spokesman for the investigation of the crash said that all evidence would be taken into account, but noted that there is so far no indication of possible anomalies.

The plane crashed Thursday, some 90 seconds after take-off. The pilot reported a double bird strike, but the authorities have not yet officially confirmed this as the cause of the accident. (dpa)