Yankees pitcher's plane crashes into Manhattan high-rise
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:22 pm
NEW: Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle only person aboard plane, FBI said
• NEW: Lidle's passport found on street below crash site
• Emergency call from plane indicated a possible fuel problem
• FDNY confirms at least one person was killed
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was the sole person aboard the plane that crashed Wednesday into a high-rise apartment building in New York, FBI officials told CNN.
Emergency responders found his passport in the street below, the officials said.
The small airplane was a Cirrus SR-20 registered to Lidle, 34, said Yankees manager Joe Torre.(Watch witness accounts of cascading fireballs and a plane split in half -- 1:58 )
There was a mayday, FAA reports, from the pilot involving a problem with fuel before the aircraft crashed into the 50-story high-rise on Manhattan's East Side.
One other person was reportedly killed, according to the New York City Fire Department and New York City Police Department.
Flames shot out from several windows midway up the luxury high-rise in a residential neighborhood. Paramedics and rescue workers are treating people on the ground.
The Federal Aviation Administration described the plane as a "general aviation" fixed-wing aircraft flying under visual flight rules, meaning a pilot was flying by visual landmarks. (Watch the orange flames ravage the apartment -- 1:50)
The plane hit the Belaire Condominiums at 524 E. 72nd Street near the East River. More than 150 firefighters are on scene of a four-alarm fire in the building.
Immediately after the crash NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) said it had put fighter aircraft into the air over numerous U.S. cities, though they said they had no reason to believe the event in New York was anything more than an accident, sources told CNN's Barbara Starr. NORAD did the same thing after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
NORAD Admiral Timothy Keating told CNN within an hour after the crash that the agency believed terrorism was not involved.
Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs New York area airports said he had "no idea where [the plane] came from."
"We haven't heard from any of our facilities that anything's missing," said Coleman.
New York City government source told CNN there are "no indications of terrorism."
The FAA placed a one-mile flight restriction around the site of the crash, but New York area airports were not affected.
A senior U.S. official in Washington said the administration was waiting for more information.
Witness Henry Neimark, who is also a pilot, said he saw a plane flying at relatively low altitude which seemed to come from LaGuardia International Airport.
"It looked to me in retrospect that this was a pilot desperately trying to get back to the airport and land safely on a runway," he said.
"The fire was raging out of two windows," witness Sarah Steiner told CNN. "It looks like the plane just flew into someone's living room."
Steiner said fires were burning on the ground. "It looks like the plane just flew into someone's living room there."
"It looks as if the aircraft didn't go into the building but fell down," she said. "It may be part of the debris burning on the ground."
Video from the scene shows at least three apartments in the high-rise engulfed in flames.
• NEW: Lidle's passport found on street below crash site
• Emergency call from plane indicated a possible fuel problem
• FDNY confirms at least one person was killed
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was the sole person aboard the plane that crashed Wednesday into a high-rise apartment building in New York, FBI officials told CNN.
Emergency responders found his passport in the street below, the officials said.
The small airplane was a Cirrus SR-20 registered to Lidle, 34, said Yankees manager Joe Torre.(Watch witness accounts of cascading fireballs and a plane split in half -- 1:58 )
There was a mayday, FAA reports, from the pilot involving a problem with fuel before the aircraft crashed into the 50-story high-rise on Manhattan's East Side.
One other person was reportedly killed, according to the New York City Fire Department and New York City Police Department.
Flames shot out from several windows midway up the luxury high-rise in a residential neighborhood. Paramedics and rescue workers are treating people on the ground.
The Federal Aviation Administration described the plane as a "general aviation" fixed-wing aircraft flying under visual flight rules, meaning a pilot was flying by visual landmarks. (Watch the orange flames ravage the apartment -- 1:50)
The plane hit the Belaire Condominiums at 524 E. 72nd Street near the East River. More than 150 firefighters are on scene of a four-alarm fire in the building.
Immediately after the crash NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) said it had put fighter aircraft into the air over numerous U.S. cities, though they said they had no reason to believe the event in New York was anything more than an accident, sources told CNN's Barbara Starr. NORAD did the same thing after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
NORAD Admiral Timothy Keating told CNN within an hour after the crash that the agency believed terrorism was not involved.
Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs New York area airports said he had "no idea where [the plane] came from."
"We haven't heard from any of our facilities that anything's missing," said Coleman.
New York City government source told CNN there are "no indications of terrorism."
The FAA placed a one-mile flight restriction around the site of the crash, but New York area airports were not affected.
A senior U.S. official in Washington said the administration was waiting for more information.
Witness Henry Neimark, who is also a pilot, said he saw a plane flying at relatively low altitude which seemed to come from LaGuardia International Airport.
"It looked to me in retrospect that this was a pilot desperately trying to get back to the airport and land safely on a runway," he said.
"The fire was raging out of two windows," witness Sarah Steiner told CNN. "It looks like the plane just flew into someone's living room."
Steiner said fires were burning on the ground. "It looks like the plane just flew into someone's living room there."
"It looks as if the aircraft didn't go into the building but fell down," she said. "It may be part of the debris burning on the ground."
Video from the scene shows at least three apartments in the high-rise engulfed in flames.