Cory Lidle dies in plane crash, Yankees pitcher crashes into condo Options

[MFer]

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.

Plane Crashes
Individual athlete air crashes
• Feb. 14, 2000: Tony Bettenhausen, Jr., race car driver/owner, near Lexington, Ky.
• Oct. 25, 1999: Payne Stewart, golfer, Mina, S.D.
• July 12, 1993: Davey Allison, race car driver, Talladega, Ala.
• Jan. 1, 1993: Alan Kulwicki, race car driver, Bristol, Tenn.
• Jan. 11, 1980: Bo Rein, LSU football coach, Atlantic ocean
• Feb. 9, 1979: Thurman Munson, NY Yankee catcher, Canton, Ohio
• Nov. 29, 1975: Graham Hill, race car driver, Hertfordshire, England
• Dec, 31, 1975: Roberto Clemente: Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Aug. 31, 1969: Rocky Marciano, heavryweight boxing champion, Newton, Iowa
• Feb. 13, 1964: Ken Hubbs, Chicago Cubs second baseman, near Provo, Utah
• March 31, 1931: Knute Rockne, Notre Dame football coach, Bazaar, Kan.
Team air crashes
• March 14, 1980: 14 members of U.S. Olympic boxing team, near Warsaw, Poland
• Dec. 13, 1977: 14 members of University of Evansville basketball team, Evansville, Ind.
• Nov. 14, 1970: 37 members of Marshall University football team, near Huntington, W. Va.
• Oct. 2, 1970: 14 members of Wichita State football team, Silver Plume, Col.
• Feb. 15, 1961: 18 members of U.S. figure skating team, near Brussels, Belgium
• Oct. 29, 1960: 16 members of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo football team, near Toledo, Ohio

[TheDevilAndGodAr...]

Unbelievable

[Vampiro69]

What a sad story. I feel bad for his wife and child.

[TheShooter]

Accident? Deliberate? Anybody want to speculate?

Anybody want to make tasteless A-Rod joke?

[Guest_Princess Leena_*]

More like a tasteless "Phillies still got screwed in the trade" joke.

Always hate seeing people die so young. (IMG:http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[Hawk 34]

Reporters are actually asking if this was a terrorist act. I get that NYC is sensitive to this type of thing but that's sort of a silly question to ask in relation to a millionaire pitcher for the local team.

It's a sad situation and it's expecially amplified by the involvement of Lidle but the circumstances are obviously strange, especially in NYC.

[Cheech Tremendou...]

Mayor Bloomberg has stated that there were two people aboard the plane that both perished (names not being released). No deaths in the apartment building.

The area where the crash happened is all restricted airspace.

[vivalaultra]

Hearing on ESPN now that there were 2 people in the plane, both dead, and at least 10 injured. Cory Lidle's wife is flying commercially back to California. Lidle radioed in fuel problems as soon as he took off from New Jersey. This is...a really terrible and out of nowehere situation. Really sad.

[HartFan86]

It's weird watching this story from the start at 3:00 pm and how it's developed. What a fucked up situation.

[Masked Man of My...]

This really sucks, and if I find out some dumb fan did this, I swear to God I will give up on sports. I say this as a Red Sox fan. RIP, another was taken from us before his time

[Hawk 34]

This really sucks, and if I find out some dumb fan did this, I swear to God I will give up on sports. I say this as a Red Sox fan. RIP, another was taken from us before his time

Huh? Did what? Lidle, crashed. In what way are you implicating a fan's involvement?

[TheShooter]

A Red Sox fan jumped on the plane with Lidle, knocked him out in mid flight, then crashed the plane into a building al Qaeda style because he wanted to kill a Yankee. Duh.

[Cheech Tremendou...]

There are rumors going around as to who might have been on the plane with him. I won't report those until there is more information.

Lidle had reported fuel problems right after take off, so suicide is probably out of the equation. He leaves behind a wife and 7 year old child.

[Brett Favre]

It was raining here to begin with; horrible what happened.

[TheShooter]

There are rumors going around as to who might have been on the plane with him. I won't report those until there is more information.

Why not? This is TSM, not the New York Times.

[Guest_Paul_*]

Wow. I couldn't believe this when I read who crashed the plane.

RIP

[iggymcfly]

That's crazy. The weird thing is looking at it from his teammates perspective, thinking that if they'd just played a little better, he'd be with the team still playing instead of dead. I mean you can't really think of it that way, and maybe he would have tried to fly somewhere as soon as the season was over and crashed anyway, but if i was A-Rod, I'd be feeling really guilty right now.

[Cheech Tremendou...]

That's crazy. The weird thing is looking at it from his teammates perspective, thinking that if they'd just played a little better, he'd be with the team still playing instead of dead. I mean you can't really think of it that way, and maybe he would have tried to fly somewhere as soon as the season was over and crashed anyway, but if i was A-Rod, I'd be feeling really guilty right now.

That's totally uncalled for.

[Guest_Paul_*]

That's crazy. The weird thing is looking at it from his teammates perspective, thinking that if they'd just played a little better, he'd be with the team still playing instead of dead. I mean you can't really think of it that way, and maybe he would have tried to fly somewhere as soon as the season was over and crashed anyway, but if i was A-Rod, I'd be feeling really guilty right now.

The fuck is wrong with you?

[USC Wuz Robbed!]

Yeah that's just ridiculous. Let's blame Detroit while we're at it too. They killed Lidle!

[iggymcfly]

Didn't you read what I said? I said even though it obviously wasn't their fault, his teammates are probably blaming themselves and feeling guilty. I was just saying that the timing would make it that much harder on them knowing that they were supposed to be playing in the ALCS right now.

[TheShooter]

That's crazy. The weird thing is looking at it from his teammates perspective, thinking that if they'd just played a little better, he'd be with the team still playing instead of dead. I mean you can't really think of it that way, and maybe he would have tried to fly somewhere as soon as the season was over and crashed anyway, but if i was A-Rod, I'd be feeling really guilty right now.

OMG.

[the max]

That's crazy. The weird thing is looking at it from his teammates perspective, thinking that if they'd just played a little better, he'd be with the team still playing instead of dead. I mean you can't really think of it that way, and maybe he would have tried to fly somewhere as soon as the season was over and crashed anyway, but if i was A-Rod, I'd be feeling really guilty right now.

You're an ass.

[vivalaultra]

Who gives a shit about baseball at a time like this? The fact is that a man's dead and his wife and young son are without him, and there's a chance that they don't even know he's dead yet, as they're supposedly flying commercially right now. I know that you weren't trying to be a dick by posting that A-Rod blaming himself thing, but...this is just...beyond baseball related.

[iggymcfly]

I was just talking to someone who was grieving before reading this story, so I was thinking about it from the perspective of the grieving teammates rather than Lidle being struck down. I'm definitely sad to see him go though. I've followed his career fairly closely and been a fan of his ever since he was on my fantasy teams a couple years in a row.

[USC Wuz Robbed!]

Didn't you read what I said? I said even though it obviously wasn't their fault, his teammates are probably blaming themselves and feeling guilty. I was just saying that the timing would make it that much harder on them knowing that they were supposed to be playing in the ALCS right now.

Because you know how they feel, right? I'm not going to assume anything like you did, but I'd say they are more upset they lost a teammate and maybe a friend, than they are that they were eliminated from the ALDS, giving Lidle a chance to fly a plane.

[Guest_Felonies!_*]

Hey, iggymcfly, you're not a cocksucker.

[bob_barron]

iggy admit it- you totally had money on Lidle's death.

[Guest_Felonies!_*]

In all seriousness, this is pretty sad stuff. I'm glad that my friends who are in Manhattan weren't hurt or anything.

[Guest_NYankees_*]

Jesus fucking christ!!! I am in a state of shock. I cant believe he is dead. I just heard him doing a radio interiew on Mike and the Maddog yesterday. It's funny how life can end so easily. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, his teammates and his loved ones.


RIP Cory.