UPDATE: Aircraft hit building at 71st and York Ave on East Side of Manhattan

Rush Limbaugh Show ^ | 10/11/06 | Rush Limbaugh

[Yossarian]

Rush reports that a Cessna has been reported as crashing into (at least one) apartment complex in NYC Mannhattan's upper east side - on East 71st Street.

[jdm]

Oh very funny. :) It is ironic that this accident would take place today, and when the date is rotated it is 9-11-01.

No kidding. You'd have better luck hitting the lottery four times in one month.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

Anyone want to bet me? A muslim was at the stick, with very, very, very high probability.

Cory Lidle is a moose limb?

[nj_pilot]

I didn't attack you personally, so please refrain from calling me "over sensitive." Consider, if you will, the parallels between this attack on GA by the Bo Dietls of the world and the attacks by Handgun Control, Inc. Notice any similarities? Do you support HCI gun control efforts? and if not, why would you support this stuff?

[TexasPatriot8]

How much do you want to bet that there were radical muzzies all over the world praising "Allah" for this hit against the Great Satan, then upon hearing it was an accident and a white non-Muslim Yankees pitcher was the pilot, they snap their fingers and say "Shucks, maybe next time". I bet there are a lot of good "moderate" muzzies that were thinking that very thing.

[S.S. Monkeyface]

Catcher.

[finnman69]

What did they do, bounce off the darn building?

Looks like the hit the brick spandrel right at the level of the concrete floor slab, the strongest pasrt of the building. that plane is made of composites, so other than the engine, I imagne the entire thing broke into tiny pieces. It would have been worse for the building if it had actually flew through a window. You can clearly see where the plane hit in this photo

[jdm]

They say the plane had an ejector seat!

If he was depressed, mad at the world, then you stay seated.

[debg]

Neal could have mentioned to Rangel that this was not the time for political attacks.

[Not A Snowbird]

They say the plane had an ejector seat!

Well... I'll have to ask my pilot husband about planes that small having ejector seats. Sounds odd to me. (But what do I know?)

[beyond the sea]

He cracked me up. He felt that he had to play the tough guy often, but there was always that little obvious (to me) twinkle in his eye that said........... "just kidding".

[S.S. Monkeyface]

Sympathies and prayers to the family of Cory Lidle, to his friends, and to the New York Yankees.

[eastsider]

Thank you.

[areafiftyone]

Let me know. I thought that was strange too when I heard. But these baseball players are rich and maybe he had one put in. (just a guess)

[TalonDJ]

No, planes that small do NOT have ejector seats.

[Raycpa]

- Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was the sole person aboard the plane that crashed into a high-rise apartment building in New York, FBI officials say.

Any chance he knew someone in the apartment building he hit?

[Txsleuth]

Um....we ARE talking about Charlie Rangel here!

[Warren_Piece]

On Fox they're saying that plane has a built in parachute system. Not for the pilot, for the PLANE!

[TexasPatriot8]

Yeah the FBI didn't say flatly "it wasn't terrorism", they said it didn't appear to be terrorism. But frankly, if the FBI had come out and said flatly it wasn't terrorism, they are among the VERY first people who WOULD know that, and the first thing they did was check with the FAA and ATC to see what small planes were non responsive, and the FBI likely knew ten minutes after this crash that it was an accident because they knew what plane, but it takes times to release that kind of thing because you need absolute confirmation.

[vrwcagent0498]

Amen to that.

[LA Woman3]

Updated: Oct. 11, 2006, 5:09 PM ET

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.

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