Posted on 10/11/2006 1:51:24 PM PDT by Irontank
small plane crashed into a 50-story luxury high-rise building on Manhattan's Upper East Side Wednesday, igniting a raging fire, killing at least two and initially trapping people on the floors above the point of impact.
New York Police Department officials said two were confirmed dead and there could be more fatalities.
The plane hit the building, located at 524 East 72nd Street, 20 floors above space occupied by the Hospital for Special Surgery.
The New York Fire Department told FOX News that there were people trapped above the point of impact, but the NYPD later said that all occupants located above the fire-ravaged floors had been evacuated.
By 3:30 p.m. ET, the blaze was reported to have been extinguished.
FBI spokeswoman Christine Monaco said there was no indication the crash — which happened five years and one month after Sept. 11, 2001 — was a terrorist attack, but officials "have been sent to the scene as a routine."
"The initial indication is that there is a terrible accident," said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke. Fighter jets, however, were scrambled and were patrolling the skies above major cities as a precaution, according to Defense Department officials.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
wow look at all the f6789ing idiotic jokes about a kid who just died.
Reports said many gathered to look at the debris. I wonder how many of them were lawyers wanting to get the case.
Omigod!
Not to mention Thurmond Munson.
Cardinals pitcher. He was found dead in Chicago, though.
The tragedy is always the innocents who die when the pampered rich want to play.
Oh, I forgot about him!
He is dead, it has been confirmed! My best friend lives in NY and her DH is on the police force. He is there at the scene and he just called her to tell her the sad news and that he knows Corey is dead.
Sad...
October 11, 2006, 4:56 PM EDT
Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle reportedly was one of at least two people killed when a plane he was piloting slammed into a high-rise residential building on the Upper East Side shortly before 3 p.m., officials said.
The police department confirmed that two people were killed, and there were no immediate reports of injuries when the four-seater plane crashed into the 50-story luxury apartment building.
Weird.
First thought that sprung to my mind, too.
Drudge cites wire reports that he was aboard.
Wow.
How strange is fate. Had the Yanks beaten Detroit, he would have been with the team instead of flying his plane.
There are many stories, but I remember one in particular. Two guys didn't make it for their flight because a radiator hose broke on the way to the airport. Yes, everyone was lost on that flight.
God rest the souls of those departed today. May their families receive comfort.
Updated: Oct. 11, 2006, 4:53 PM ET
Lidle dies as plane crashes into Manhattan high-riseESPN.com news services
NEW YORK -- A small plane piloted by New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle crashed into a 50-story condominium tower Wednesday on Manhattan's Upper East Side, raining flaming debris onto the sidewalks below and rattling New Yorkers' nerves five years after the Sept. 11 attack.
Lidle died in the crash.
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.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
You just never know.
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