Small Aircraft hits building in NYC

[American Patriot]

FAA is stating at this moment that this was a FIXED WING aircraft under VFR.

Weather was CLEAR, mid 60s in NYC.

At least one dead, people trapped in the building at the moment.

FDNY says this is a three alarm fire and I've sent screen captures to Ryan for posting later.

Rick

[American Patriot]

NORAD stating now.... fighters are scambled over numerous cities.

[American Patriot]

NORAD believes this (I think from what I am hearing) this is the prudent thing to do.

Justice Dept, homeland security is stating there is no reason to believe this is anything other than a "very bad acceident".

Building is a hospital on the lower floors, upper floors are condos.

At least two reported dead by FOX NEWS just now.

No further information at this time.

[Joey Bagadonuts]

BREAKING: NY Yankees Pitcher Corey Lidle piloting the aircraft

. .I hope it doesn't turn out that he knows someone (like an ex) at that address?. This is tragic enough just as an accident. Rest in peace, Corey

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++





Lidle dies as plane crashes into Manhattan high-rise

NEW YORK -- A small plane with New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle aboard crashed into a 50-story condominium tower Wednesday on Manhattan's Upper East Side, killing at least four people and raining flaming debris on sidewalks, authorities said.


Federal Aviation Administration records showed the single-engine plane was registered to Lidle, and FBI reports show that Lidle's passport was found at the scene. The FBI believed Lidle was the only person aboard the plane and the other three deaths occurred inside the building.

The twin-engine plane came through a hazy, cloudy sky and hit the 20th floor of The Belaire -- a red-brick tower overlooking the East River, about five miles from the World Trade Center -- with a loud bang, touching off a raging fire that cast a pillar of black smoke over the city and sent flames shooting from four windows on two adjoining floors.

Large crowds gathered in the street in the largely wealthy New York neighborhood, with many people in tears and some trying to reach loved ones by cell phone.

"I was worried the building would explode, so I got out of there fast," said Lori Claymont, who fled an adjoining building in sweatpants.

Young May Cha, a 23-year-old Cornell University medical student, said she was walking back from the grocery store down 72nd Street when she saw an object out of the corner of her eye.

"I just saw something come across the sky and crash into that building," she said. Cha said there appeared to be smoke coming from behind the aircraft, and "it looked like it was flying erraticaly for the short time that I saw it."

"The explosion was very small. I was not threatened for my life," she added.

Richard Drutman, a professional photographer who lives on the 11th floor, said he was talking on the telephone when he felt the building shake.

"There was a huge explosion. I looked out my window and saw what appeared to be pieces of wings, on fire, falling from the sky," Drutman said. He and his girlfriend quickly evacuated the building.

The plane left New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, just across the Hudson River from the city, at 2:30 p.m., about 15 minutes before the crash, according to officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport. But they said they did not where the aircraft was headed.

FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said the plane was apparently not in contact with air traffic controllers; pilots flying small planes by sight are not required to be in contact.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to investigate.

Former NTSB director Jim Hall said in a telephone interview he doesn't understand how a plane could get so close to a New York City building after Sept. 11.

"We're under a high alert and you would assume that if something like this happened, people would have known about it before it occurred, not after," Hall said.

Mystery writer Carol Higgins Clark, daughter of author Mary Higgins Clark, lives on the 38th floor and was coming home in a cab when she saw the smoke.

"Thank goodness I wasn't at my apartment writing at the time," she said. She described the building's residents as a mix of actors, doctors, lawyers, writers and people with second homes.

Sgt. Claudette Hutchinson, a spokeswoman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colo., said fighter jets "are airborne over numerous U.S. cities and while every indication is that this is an accident, we see this as a prudent measure at this time."

However, all three New York City-area airports continued to operate normally, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said neither President Bush nor Vice President Dick Cheney was moved to secure locations.

"All indications are that is an unfortunate accident," said Yolanda Clark, a spokeswoman for Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration. She said there was "no specific or credible intelligence suggesting an imminent threat to the homeland, at this time."

The crash struck fear in a city devastated by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Sirens echoed across the neighborhood as about 170 firefighters rushed in along with emergency workers and ambulances. Broken glass and debris were strewn around the neighborhood.

"There's a sense of helplessness," said Sandy Teller, watching from his apartment a block away. "Cots and gurneys, waiting. It's a mess."

The tower was built in the late 1980s and is situated near Sotheby's auction house. It has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million.

Several lower floors are occupied by doctors and administrative offices, as well as guest facilities for family members of patients at the Hospital for Special Surgery, hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Fisher said.

No patients were in the high-rise building and operations at the hospital a block away were not affected, Fisher said.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.


***

[Joey Bagadonuts]

....Anyone wondering what dopey liberal ex-actors do for excitement?

Reuters picture caption says:

Actor Alec Baldwin tries to pass a police cordon near the site where a small aircraft crashed into a high-rise building in New York, October 11, 2006. (Chip East/Reuters)

***

[samizdat]

The passport is a "curious" detail. I imagine details about passengers, and the nature of the distress call will be blacked out. This appears a curious Accident. Nevertheless, I doubt the world series will be played this year.

Lidle's passport was found on the street, according to a federal official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear who was at the controls and who was the second person aboard. There was no official confirmation of Lidle's death from city officials.

[Ryan Ruck]

....Anyone wondering what dopey liberal ex-actors do for excitement?

Reuters picture caption says:






***

I can just hear the words coming out of that asshole's mouth... "Don't you know who I am?!?! Let me by or I'll have your badge you peon!!"

Ugghhh... I just want to throw a brick at his condecending ass. Come on, just one!

[American Patriot]

Oh come on.... he was there for one reason and ONE reason only. To fuel an ANTI-BUSH attack, based on an idioctic conspiracy theory.

I can see it now...

"The authorities wouldn't let US, the PUBLIC in to see what was happening for ourselves. This is because they were hiding something. We believe Lidel was a brainwashed fool and crashed into the wrong building, and had his orders from Dick Cheney himself."

"This building didn't fall down. This throws a WHOLE new light on the WTC. That was planned."

Oh and... "... by the way a plane couldn't have hit the pentagon, and that wasn't a plane that hit that high rise, it was a missile from a C-130"


Give me a break Baldwin, just STFU. You're an ACTOR, and not even a good one at that.

This looks like a very horrible accident, and chances are HIGH that this will be ruled "pilot error". The trainer is at fault and Lidel is at fault. Reports are that the pilot of that plane was performing something akin to acrobatic maneuvers, and put himself in the position to hit that building.

It's sad, but there's no conspiracy here.

[Bastastic]

I got an e-mail earlier today regarding the date of the crash: 10-11-06. If you turn that upside down it reads 09-11-01! Now, I am not saying that this is a conspiracy or any of that crap. I just thought it was an interesting coincidence that I should share.

[samizdat]

Sounds like a coincidence. I'm interested in how his passport was discovered and what the nature of the distress call was. Doubt I'll ever know. Very curious.

[Sean Osborne]

The most plausible probability on the cause of this tragedy is contained in an article that went online today at the following link. I believe this explanation precisely fits the eyewitess accounts and virtually all physical realities involved.

This tragedy boils down to an aviation fact-of-life known as the "minimum radius turn" forced upon whoever was at the controls of Cory Lidle's Cirrus SR20 aircraft due to their entrapment in a "box canyon".

Here's the link. This is one outstanding article imho.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610u/lidle-crash-2

[American Patriot]

I think it is a conspiracy because if you turn the numbers upside down, you get 09-11-01! I mean, damn, just DAMN President Bush had something to do with this!

[Sean Osborne]

Well, the article i linked is a good one.

I've taking things a virtual step further.

I flew Cory Lidle's route exactly as described from Teterboro down the Hudson to do a couple of loops around Lady Liberty and then up the East River making a 180 degree left u turn just north of the tip of Roosevelt island. I kept my altitude constant at 700 feet.

Try it via Google Earth. It's as virutal as you can get in understanding what happened, and I do not understand at all why the Cirrus SR20 hit that high rise on E 72nd Street.

I think something else must've been radically wrong in the cockpit or with the aircraft itself.

[samizdat]

A coast guard camera was able to capture the crash on film. This and a transcript of the emergency calls should shed light.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005155074

I still find it very curious that a passport would casually perhaps fall from his front shirt pocket into the lap of a federal official or reporter.

1. Highly improbable.


It doesn't sound at all like a "family affair".

2. Highly improbable that Lidle would invite his flight instructor to a suicidal ex-wife, girlfriend custody type mission. Particularly since he had plans, hotel reservations etc to fly to Calif.

Could have been flap failure or some other instrument problem.- the confirmation of this would be in the mayday message-(no data) and the coast guard film (ditto).



The only thought I could imagine is that someone was hiding in the plane. It's a 4 seater, no? This is possible, perhaps unlikely, but not highly improbable.

Norad was scrambled, which was deemed prudent. I would conjecture that the coast guard film may have prompted this action.

Here is the cached story which still has a frame from the coast guard film. The original story now has a sub photo.
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:...x&ct=clnk&cd=2

Now, I've found a suspicious contradiction. Originally a distress call was reported. Now-
Hersman said the FAA was reviewing aircraft-control tapes at the NTSB's request, and so far had no indication of a mayday call.

I would say that my original conjecture- reasonable suspicion that the pertinent data would be blacked out is partially confirmed. It is possible, though not likely that Lidle and his FI were hijacked. No reasonable suspicion exists. If the data supporting such possible suspicion exists, it would not be prudent to release it.

This may not be a significant incident. I once spoke to the policeman who arrested the watergate "burglars". He only confirmed what had already become obvious to me in the early and mid-80's, that Nixon set himself up. He wanted to be caught it; was a press ploy.

I don't believe the govt. is wrong here, nor do I paint any "official conspiracy". I do have a sneaky suspicion, some clues and evidence are undetected and missing here. Clues which could preclude a more serious "accident." Private airports have good security. What they need are dogs.

[American Patriot]

Not curious about the passport.

It happened that the plane that hit the WTC had most of the cockpit go all the way through and hit the ground. They found a lot of stuff there on the ground.

[Sean Osborne]

I agree on the passport, nothing curious at all about it being found on the street below. Lidle's passport and other documentation was likely kept in a glove box or similar enclosure and probably not on his person.

On 9/11 personal papers, passports, driver licenses, etc were found all over the place and blocks away from the WTC buildings - and that was one hell of a larger inferno. Some of that paperwork belonged to the highjackers themselves.

[American Patriot]

NTSB ISSUES FINAL REPORT ON MANHATTAN PLANE CRASH THAT KILLED YANKEE PITCHER
NTSB ^ | 1 May 07

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 1, 2007 SB-07-24

NTSB ISSUES FINAL REPORT ON MANHATTAN PLANE CRASH THAT KILLED YANKEE PITCHER

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Washington, D.C. - The National Transportation Safety Board today determined that the probable cause of a small airplane crash in Manhattan last October was the pilots' inadequate planning, judgment, and airmanship in the performance of a 180-degree turn maneuver inside of a limited turning space.

On October 11, 2006, a Cirrus Design SR-20, N929CD, operated as a personal flight, crashed into an apartment building in Manhattan, New York City, while attempting a 180-degree turn maneuver above the East River. The two pilots on board the airplane were killed, including the owner of the aircraft, Cory Lidle of the New York Yankees. The second occupant was a commercial pilot with a flight instructor certificate. Three people on the ground were injured, and the airplane was destroyed.

"This accident is a great tragedy in which a pleasure flight went horribly wrong and ultimately cost the lives to two young men," said NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker. "The pilots placed themselves in a precarious situation that could have been prevented by better judgment and planning."

In its final report, the Board stated that there were no system, structural or engine malfunctions found. The pilot/owner was properly certificated to fly the accident airplane. The pilot-rated passenger was also a certified flight instructor and qualified to have flown the accident flight.

Due to the complex accident forces involved in the crash sequence, the Board's report states that it is not possible to determine who was manipulating the controls at the time of the accident. Also, due to the lack of a cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder, it was not possible to determine who was the pilot in control during the accident flight or if flight instruction was being given.

The Board stated that the pilots did not aggressively bank the airplane throughout the turn nor did they use the full available width of the river. Radar data indicate that the airplane was in the middle of the East Channel at the start of the 180-degree turn as opposed to beginning the turn from the eastern shoreline. In addition, wind out of the east would have effectively shortened the available distance to successfully make the turn.

In the report, it states that investigators could not determine whether the pilots were aware of the wind's effect on the execution of the 180-degree turn. It is believed that they should have been able to observe the difference in the ground track and heading during the flight to determine that there was a prevailing wind from the east and compensate for westward drift.

Finally, the Board found that the pilots should have recognized, during preflight planning or while they were considering flying up the East River after they were already in flight, that there was limited turning space in the East River exclusion area and they would need to maximize the lateral distance available for turning.

As a result of it's investigation, the Safety Board made the following recommendation to the Federal Aviation Administration:

* Permanently prohibit visual flight rules flight operations involving fixed-wing, nonamphibious aircraft in the New York East River class B exclusion area unless those operations are authorized and being controlled by air traffic control.

A synopsis of the Board's report including the probable cause and recommendation, is available on the Board's website, www.ntsb.gov, under "Board Meetings." The Board's full report will be available on the website in several weeks.

NTSB Media Contact: Keith Holloway, (202) 314-6100 hollowk@ntsb.gov

NTSB Home | News & Events

NTSB Home | Contact Us | Search | About the NTSB | Policies and Notices | Related Sites