Thread: Small place crashes into an Apartment building in New York city

This just happened about 20 mins ago. Very scary when you live in NY.



A small aircraft has crashed into an apartment building at 72nd and York on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Several apartment are engulfed in flames. Tune to CBS 2 and stay with wcbstv.com for more information.

I am so sorry

Small Aircraft Hits Manhattan Building
Oct 11 3:36 PM US/Eastern
By COLEEN LONG - Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK -- A small plane crashed into a high-rise on the Upper East Side, raining down debris on Manhattan and unleashing what witnesses reported was a gigantic fireball, police said.

Christine Monaco, a New York spokeswoman for FBI, said there was indication of terrorism in the crash, but that officials "have been sent to the scene as a routine." FAA spokesman Jim Peters said all three New York City-area airports are operating normally.

The aircraft struck the 20th floor of a building on East 72nd Street, said Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi. Witnesses said the crash caused a loud noise, and flames were seen shooting out of the windows. "It's a mob scene with police and helicopters circling," said Sandy Teller, watching from his apartment a block away. "There's a dozen ambulances and lots of firemen waiting on 72nd, on the corner. There's lots of stretchers ready, gurneys. And lots of emergency people waiting."

The crash struck fear in a city devastated by the attacks of Sept. 11 five years ago. Witnesses said sirens echoed across the east side of Manhattan as emergency workers rushed to the scene. The crash triggered a loud bang. Broken glass and debris was strewn around the neighborhood.

"There's a sense of helpnessness," Teller said. "Cots and gurneys, waiting. It's a mess."

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was too early to determine what type of aircraft was involved, or what might have caused the crash in the middle of a hazy October afternoon.

Witness Sarah Steiner, who lives one block away, told CNN that "The fire was raging out of two windows on approximately the 30th floor. ... They are evacuating the building."

The address of the building is 524 E. 72nd Street _ a 50-story condominium tower built in the late 1980s and located near Sotheby's Auction House. The Belaire Condo, developed by William Zeckendorf Jr., has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million.



http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/11/D8KMKFBO2.html



Ongoin coverage http://hotair.com/archives/2006/10/1...yc-skyscraper/

Small aircraft crashes into NYC skyscraper;
Update: Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle piloted the plane?
posted at 3:01 pm on October 11, 2006

Right off the East River, on 72nd Street. It looks like an apartment building; the fire is small, perhaps confined to one apartment unit thus far. Fox and CNN are carrying it live. No clue what’s going on yet. It is, in fact, overcast here today.

Update: The AP says it’s a small plane. Police sources say it’s small but multi-engine.

Update: AP says it’s the Bel Aire building.

Update: It has to be an accident. The UN and Chrysler Building are only 30 blocks south. Why target an apartment complex when you could hit them instead?

Update: It’s a three-alarm fire. People are trapped inside, according to the FDNY.

Update: “‘There’s huge pieces of debris falling,’ said one witness who refused to give her full name. ‘There’s so much falling now, I’ve got to get away.’”

Update: Two confirmed dead. FAA says it’s a fixed-wing aircraft, not a helicopter.

Update: The FBI tells CNN that two joint-terrorism task force teams are on their way to the scene. A witness on Fox says she saw the plane dip and lose altitude; it could have been a stall.

Update: The building is 50 floors; the plane went in at around. The job for the FDNY is getting people out above the impact zone. One witness is telling the local Fox affiliate that the plane hit the building and then pieces of it slid down the side into the street.

Update: Live video at WNBC4-NY. You can see the black streak on the building where the plane slid down.

Update: It’s a four-alarm fire now. One witness says the plane was doing “acrobatic” maneuvers. Over Manhattan? A reporter on WNBC4 says the plane took a “hard, 90-degree turn” into the building. (( There are two bodies on the ground on 72nd Street — as well as luggage. Would terrorists have packed? ))

Update: The FDNY says it was a helicopter. The FAA begs to differ.

Update: Norad has deployed several fighter jets over U.S. cities as a precautionary measure.

Update: Multiple “U.S. sources” tell Fox the crash appears to be an accident.

Update: The FDNY says it wasn’t a major impact and that fighting the fire should be “routine.” In fact, the flames are substantially extinguished. No injuries to any firefighters but no word on the occupants. The structural integrity of the building is also supposedly “excellent,” according to WNBC4. ( The plane apparently didn’t hit the building hard enough to penetrate deeply. A terrorist would have accelerated and driven into it as hard as he could, no? )

Update: The local news stations are covering this wall to wall. It’s like a vet with PTSD flipping out at the sound of a car backfiring.

Update: An eyewitness tells WNBC4 that the plane nosedived straight down into the building — again, not the way you’d want to do it if you’re looking to do maximum damage. Sounds like the engine cut out. Pretty clearly an accident.

Update (Ian): Just in case you haven’t noticed, today is 10/11.

Update: Four dead, according to WNBC4: two in the plane, two inside the building.
The aircraft was a Cirrus-20.

Update: The Truthers are already accusing the FDNY of covering up.
http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com...ane-crash.html
Update: The plane was flying at roughly 800 feet when it made a “radical turn” and crashed. That’s around the same altitude Flight 11 was at when it hit the North Tower.

Update: The plane was registered to an individual from Lakeland, Florida. No name yet.

Update: “Firefighters shot water streams of water at the flames from the floors below and put the blaze out in less than an hour.”

Update: WNBC4 just mentioned that Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle apparently applied to buy the plane in July. Wait — hold the phone. Lidle did actually purchase the plane, they’re saying now.

Was Cory Lidle flying the plane? Trying to impress his date by doing a little acrobatics over Manhattan? Standby.

Update: Fox is reporting that Lidle was indeed flying the plane.

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

Update: WNBC4 just mentioned that Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle apparently applied to buy the plane in July. Wait — hold the phone. Lidle did actually purchase the plane, they’re saying now.

Was Cory Lidle flying the plane? Trying to impress his date by doing a little acrobatics over Manhattan? Standby.

Update: Fox is reporting that Lidle was indeed flying the plane.

Update: Fox is reporting that Lidle was indeed flying the plane. CNN quotes first responders as saying the pilot might have made a distress call before the crash.

WNBC4 says an official has confirmed that a member of the Yankees was onboard the plane. Now sources are saying that Lidle’s passport was found on the street.

Plane with Yankees pitcher aboard crashes into Manhattan high-rise; at least 4 killed
Updated 10/11/2006 5:24 PM ET
From staff and wire reports

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, authorities said.

There was no immediate confirmation Lidle was among the dead. A law enforcement official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that Lidle was on the plane. And Federal Aviation Administration records showed the single-engine plane was registered to the athlete. "The initial indication is that there is a terrible accident," Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said. Nevertheless, fighter jets were scrambled over U.S. cities as a precaution, the Pentagon said.

The crash at the Belaire overlooking the East River struck fear in a city devastated by the attacks of Sept. 11 five years ago. Sirens echoed across the neighborhood as emergency workers and ambulances rushed in with stretchers. Broken glass and debris were strewn around the neighborhood.

"The building shook. Boom. And then that was it. It was like something hitting something really hard," said Patty Charles, a housekeeper in a condominium on the 32nd floor of the building on East 72nd Street, about five miles from the World Trade Center site. Charles said she believed the plane struck the building on a floor above her.

Gerardo Ramirez, 21, an x-ray technician at the nearby Hospital for Special Surgery, said he was at the corner of York Avenue and 72nd Street when he heard the explosion. "I looked up and there was fire raging from the windows and debris falling all over the street," he said.

Ramirez said he saw security guards run out from inside the building, then look up at the fireball above. "They didn't know what to do," he said.

Bob Longman, 66, who lives in a building half a block away on East 72nd Street, said he heard the explosion. "It sounded like a truck engine braking, and there was a sudden pop," he said.

He went to his window and saw the fire. "I thought it was on the ground," he said. He then looked up and realized an aircraft had struck the building and that flaming debris had rained down the outside of the building.

A pillar of black smoke rose over the city, and burning debris fell as firefighters shot water streams of water at the flames from the floors below.

Emergency crews arrived at the scene within minutes of the explosion and the blaze was extinguished in less than an hour. The emergency response "was just so fast — it was breathtaking," said Marcia Longman, 61, Bob Longman's wife.

"It's like 9/11 all over again. People are crying and hugging each other," said Michelle Generoso of Brooklyn, who was in the condominum when the explosion occurred.

Rain started pouring at the scene at around 4 p.m., and people gazed up at the smoke and fire as they covered their heads with plastic bags.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was too early to determine what type of aircraft was involved, or what might have caused the crash in the middle of a hazy, overcast October afternoon.

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.

On Sunday, the day after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs, Lidle cleaned out his locker at Yankee Stadium and talked about his interest in flying.

He explained to reporters the process of getting a pilot's license, and said he intended to fly back to California in several days and planned to make a few stops. Lidle disccused the plane crash of John F. Kennedy Jr. and how he had read the accident report on the National Transportation Safety Board website.

Lidle, acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30, told The New York Times last month that his four-seat Cirrus SR20 plane was safe.

"The whole plane has a parachute on it," Lidle said. "Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the 1% that do usually land it. But if you're up in the air and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly."

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. Among its occupants are novelist Carol Higgins Clark, who told WCBS television she was not in the building when the explosion occurred.

The address of the building is 524 E. 72nd Street — a 50-story condominium tower built in the late 1980s and located near Sotheby's Auction House. The Belaire Condo, developed by William Zeckendorf Jr., has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million.

Several lower floors of the building 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 weren't affected, Fisher said. The Hospital for Special Surgery specializes in orthopedic operations.

Roads near the condominium were closed; York Avenue was jammed with emergency vehicles. Smoke could be smelled in the air nearby and news helicopters circled the scene this afternoon.

Contributing: The Associated Press; Rick Hampson, Kevin McCoy and Martha T. Moore in New York; Randy Lilleston in McLean, Va.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...an-plane_x.htm

Thats so sad

Lidle's instructor loved flying
By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer

LA VERNE, Calif. - New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle said flying relieved the stress of the baseball life. But for his instructor, Tyler Stanger, flying was life itself and had been since he was a boy.

Both were on an aerial tour of New York City when Lidle's plane slammed into a high-rise Wednesday. It was not clear who was at the controls. Lidle had been licensed for less than a year, while Stanger, 26, had been flying since he was a teen.

Stanger trained the ballplayer at his tiny, two-plane flight school at Brackett Field in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. He was a popular visitor to the airport's coffee shop, Norm's Hangar, where he often took students for debriefing.

"He was such a sweet guy, a genuinely down-to-earth person," owner Kathy Touche said Thursday, wiping away a tear. "He seemed kind of shy to me at first. He was more quiet until you got to know him, and then he opened up."

Dave Conriguez, the cook and a baseball fan, showed a laminated check with Lidle's autograph that he got when Stanger brought the ballplayer to the shop.

He last spoke to Stanger on Sunday. The instructor told him he was headed to New York, Conriguez said.

"They were going to fly back together. It was right after the loss to Detroit," he said, referring to the Yankees' playoff defeat against the Tigers on Saturday. "Tyler's such a great flight instructor that I never gave it a second thought. It was just, `See you in a week.'"

Congriguez said he told Stanger that "as soon as Cory gets back, I'm going to have my picture taken with him in a Yankee hat."

Stanger and Lidle, along with their wives and young children, were vacationing in New York together and took in the city's sights on Tuesday, said Robin Howard, owner of Howard Aviation, an airfield operation where Stanger worked at as a mechanic in high school.

Plans were for the wives and children to return to California on commercial flights while the men were to take a four-day trip across the country, Howard said.

"He was very excited about the trip. He was really excited that he was going to get to see New York and fly back with Cory. They had become great friends," said Howard, who added he spoke with Stanger no more than an hour before the crash.

Stanger earned his pilot's license by 17 and earned a degree in aviation management from Southern Illinois University, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. He worked for several years as an aircraft mechanic.

Stanger had known Lidle, who lived in Southern California in the offseason, for about a year. According to The New York Times, they met the day after the 2005 season ended and flew to Long Beach, Calif. Lidle, who had never flown a plane, was hooked.

Lidle "was probably my best student," and had a knack for dealing with simulated emergencies, Stanger told the newspaper last month.

"On the mound, he has to hold in all the emotions and keep completely focused. It's the same thing flying: If you're in an emergency, you can't waste any time worrying," Stanger said. "You have to take command of the situation. A lot of people I fly with don't have that mentality. Cory does."

Stanger's 3-year-old business, Stang-AIR, offered instruction, plane rentals and sightseeing trips. Stang-AIR's Web site contained a quote that said: "The most dangerous part about flying is the drive to the airport."

Stanger — who is survived by his wife, Stephanie, who is pregnant, and an infant daughter — grew up in the San Gabriel Valley city of Walnut. The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported that Stanger once said he fell in love with planes while watching them fly over his home near Rialto Airport as a boy.

A friend from high school, freelance photographer David Pardo, said flying was "his life and his passion."

Stanger was an adventurous man who nonetheless insisted on safety and felt absolutely confident behind the controls of his own airplane, according to Pardo.

He said Stanger flew him out to take photographs after a 2005 mudslide disaster in the coastal town of La Conchita.

"He was like, `Dude, you're safe with me.' I trusted him with my life," Pardo said. Pardo said Stanger told him: "I know my plane and I just know that I will never get in a crash with my plane."

As for Wednesday's crash, "I believe had it been his own plane ... he would have been able to pull through," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061012/...tkBHNlYwM3MTg-

Investigators go over Lidle crash scene
By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Investigators sifted through debris inside a luxury high-rise apartment Thursday for clues to why a small airplane carrying New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle slammed into the building, killing the pitcher and a flight instructor.

National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said investigators found debris scattered everywhere.

Aircraft parts and headsets were on the ground. The propeller broke apart from the engine, which landed on the floor of an apartment. The bodies fell to the street. On Thursday, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly identified the flight instructor as Tyler Stanger of Walnut, Calif.

Residents were allowed back into their apartments except for the 39th through 41st floors, where rooms were gutted by the fire and a six-story scorch mark marred the red brick. "There's a significant amount of damage," Hersman told CNN Thursday morning.

She said investigators were taking fuel samples, looking at maintenance records and examining Lidle's flight log book — "anything that will give us a clue about what happened."

Lidle talked often of his love of flying, describing it his escape from the stress of professional baseball and a way to see the world in a different light. "No matter what's going on in your life, when you get up in that plane, everything's gone," Lidle told an interviewer with Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia while flying his plane in April.

Lidle and Stanger boarded the same single-engine plane Wednesday afternoon for what was supposed to be a leisurely flight around New York City. They took off from a suburban New Jersey airport, circled the Statue of Liberty and flew past lower Manhattan and north along the East River.

Twenty minutes into the flight and just moments after passing the 59th Street Bridge, the plane smashed into the Upper East Side condominium building, killing the two men and briefly raising fears of another terrorist attack in this scarred city.

"It was very scary," said Diane Tarantini, who was sitting in an outdoor courtyard when she heard a boom and saw a fireball across the street. "It brings back all these memories about planes hitting buildings, the terror of that day in September."

The plane slammed into apartments that were 30 and 31 stories above the street, though the floors are numbered at 40 and 41. The building is about 40 stories high.

Firefighters put out the raging fire in less than an hour. Twenty-three people, mostly firefighters, were taken to hospitals, but all had been released by Thursday except Ilana Benhuri, who was in fair condition, said John Rogers, spokesman for New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Benhuri's husband, Dr. Parviz Benhuri, said his wife was home when the plane hit their window, breaking the glass and spewing flames. She suffered burns on her back and legs but was in good spirits, he said. "She ran fast. That was a miracle. I don't know how she made it," he said. His brother, Dr. Marc Benhuri, said her housekeeper helped her escape.

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 clear who was at the controls.

Hersman said the FAA was reviewing aircraft-control tapes at the NTSB's request, and so far had no indication of a mayday call.

The Cirrus SR20 was built in 2002 and purchased earlier this year, she said. It was registered to Lidle. The four-seater is equipped with a parachute in case of a mishap, but it apparently was not used.

NTSB records indicate 12 accidents involving the Cirrus SR20, first flown as a prototype in 1995. In two accidents this year, pilots reported engines losing power.

Lidle had repeatedly assured reporters in recent weeks that flying was safe and that the Yankees — who were traumatized in 1979 when catcher Thurman Munson was killed in the crash of a plane he was piloting — had no reason to worry.

His teammates were stunned at the crash. Jason Giambi, who played high school baseball with Lidle and knew his family, said in a statement: "We were excited to be reunited in New York this year and I am just devastated to hear this news."

On Sunday, the day after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs, Lidle cleaned out his locker at Yankee Stadium and said he planned to fly to California, making a few stops. Lidle had reserved a room for Wednesday night at the historic Union Station hotel in Nashville, Tenn., hotel spokeswoman Melanie Fly said.

Family and friends converged on Lidle's home in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendora, Calif.

Lidle's twin brother, Kevin, told CNN's "Larry King Live" the family was having a tough time. "But what can you do? Somehow you hang in there and you get through it," he said. "I've had a lot of calls from friends and family, people calling and crying. And they've released some emotions, and I haven't done that yet. I don't know — I guess I'm in some kind of state of shock."

Lidle began his career in 1997 with the Mets and also pitched for Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Oakland, Toronto and Cincinnati.

Stanger, the flight instructor, operated a flight school in La Verne, Calif., and lived nearby with his wife and young child.

The military scrambled fighter jets over New York and other major cities immediately after the crash. Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. Northern Command, told The Associated Press military officials knew it likely wasn't a terrorist act "about a half an hour after it happened."

___

Associated Press writers Pat Milton, Ron Blum, Colleen Long, Robert Tanner and Adam Goldman in New York; Robert Weller in Denver; Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles; and Leslie Miller and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061012/...tkBHNlYwM3MTg-