New York Unnerved
An aircraft has crashed into the middle of a brick luxury high-rise residential building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side at 72nd Street and York Avenue, police officials said.
The building is very close to the East River. There was no word on casualties as firefighters battled the flames that shot up from several windows in the middle of the building. The Federal Aviation Administration has said a “general aviation” aircraft had hit the building.
Aircraft crashes into New York building
A North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) spokesperson, which monitors air traffic, told CNN that it had not been tracking the aircraft.
Not a sight most New Yorkers can readily handle.
Will keep y’all posted soon as I can..
Sigh.
Update:
Yankees pitcher’s plane crashes into Manhattan high-rise
Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was the sole person aboard the plane that crashed Wednesday into a high-rise apartment building in New York, FBI officials told CNN.
Emergency responders found his passport in the street below, the officials said. ..
“It looked to me in retrospect that this was a pilot desperately trying to get back to the airport and land safely on a runway,” he said...Two deaths were confirmed by the city medical examiner’s office, CNN reported…
There have been several fatal plane crashes involving Major League players, the two most famous being the one that killed Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente in 1972 and the one in which Yankees captain Thurman Munson died in 1979.
Pray for FDNY. Some reported injured already.
First Thurman Munson, now Cory Lidle, 34 years old…he was only with the Yankees a few months… God rest their souls.
Kudos to all the safety personnel who responded. My prayer goes out Cory’s family..his wife, six year old son and twin brother, and all his loved ones.
And to the other injured innocent’s families as well as to all of us in N.Y. angered and scared out of our wits.
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More updates here:
StopTheACLU, MichelleMalkin
October 11th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
This one seems a little creepy, but the one small plane in an unimportant building just doesn’t have the al Queda feel to it. On the other hand, the FAA insists no small planes should have been anywhere near NYC at the time. This is one of those “hard to get a read on” scenarios. We might conceivably find out the details of North Korea’s missile test before the identity of this flight becomes apparent (ie. in 2 weeks or so). Until then, libertarian-hawk Neal Boortz of Atlanta is a hobby aviator, and he’s noted several times that onerous legislation has long been brought against small planes for little practical benefit: he’s noted already today “I Can’t see how this would be a terrorist attack. A terrorist would have chosen a much more spectacular target than this old apartment building.” He’s also noted in the past that even a Cessna loaded with explosives is no destructive match for a rental truck loaded with explosives, or in this case just sneaking a lot of explosives into the apartment yourself. Seems clear.
As for getting your Blogger ID to correspond with your homepage, I just tried the trick I thought worked, and it didn’t. Nuts. Sorry for getting your hopes up.
October 11th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Hannity just reported that the plane is registered to some Yankees baseball pitcher (I don’t remember who he said it was) and that the Yankee was piloting the plane at the time. Patacki was just on the show and he said that every indication was that it was not a terrorist activity.
I do think that the restrictions on small planes are overkill - just like searching 80 year old ladies with knitting needles in the airport - I really sdon;t think the real threat is there. Unfortunately, not only do we live in a PC world where if you inconvenience one you have to inconvenience everyone, but there are also a lot of people who think that we have to totally eliminate every conceivable threat no matter how small and how unlikely.
This was just terrible but it really looks just like it was nothing more than an accident.
October 11th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Cory freaking Lidle! The guy I was mentioning as tradebait in a blog post just hours ago.
And I posthumously apologize for what I said about him following the Tigers upset of the Yanks:
“and newcomer Cory Lidle was, well, Cory Lidle (hint: when a pitcher who has a 4.74 ERA in the National League also had a 5.75 ERA his last AL stint, and you have the opportunity to sign him to your AL team in need of a strong pitcher, pass on the opportunity).”
I didn’t mean it, man! You coulda been an ace!
October 11th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
Wow, pretty scary. Especially since it’s Ramadan!
I’m glad it wasn’t a terrorist attack.
Keep praying.
October 11th, 2006 at 7:48 pm
It’s says a lot when something like this happens the first thing that crosses our minds is “Terrorist!” We have been programmed, haven’t we?
I can’t figure out what in the world he was doing flying that low and in that area in the first place. I suppose we’ll get more details as they are figured out.
God rest the souls of those who died and help heal their familie’s grief.
October 11th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Thank y’all for the comments and prayers.
October 11th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Such a sad story!
October 11th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
There are some strange coinsidences.
1. Today is the 11th, 5 years 1 month from 9/11
2. Lidle isn’t the only Yankee to crash his own plane. The great catcher from the 70’s Thurmond Munson crashed his plane and lost his life on his way home to visit family.
October 11th, 2006 at 11:50 pm
I’ve been gone or outsided working all day and missed most of the excitement. I’m so glad it was an accident and not terror related. But I am sorry for the loss of innocent life.
Small planes with student pilots should not be in inner city New York learning how to fly.
October 12th, 2006 at 1:18 am
another sad day in NYC…
RIP
October 12th, 2006 at 6:27 am
If I lived in New York, by now I’d never leave my house without constantly watching the skies. Not to trivialize the deaths, but thank God it was just the two of them.
October 12th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
It could’ve been much worse.There were 2 sets of controls and neither pilot was able to prevent the crash. I wonder if carbon monoxide in the cabin had something to do with it?
October 12th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
RIP Cory Lidle…
NEW YORK, Oct. 11 — A small plane carrying New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and a flight instructor spun out of control on a blustery Wednesday afternoon and slammed into the side of a 50-story condominium tower on the Upper East Side, killing bo…..
October 12th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
A MOMENT TO STEP BACK FROM THE CRAZINESS WE ALL CALL REALITY, AND HUG A LOVED ONE..LIFE MAKES NO GUARANTEES. ONE MOMENT TO THE NEXT. IS THE LAST WORD OR GESTURE WE MADE THE ONE WE CAN LEAVE ON…MAKE SURE!!!