A Yankee Who Used To Be A Red - A Plane - And An Overpriced Condominium Building
...
They must have thought that 9/11 was happening - again.
On... 10/11.
But it was not the case at all.
It was, instead, one of the fallen Yankees...
This time, falling from the sky - and it was fatal.
Former Cincinnati Reds pitcher, former Philadelphia Phillie and current New York Yankee, Cory Lidle was looking forward to testing free agency for next season.
Now, it is assured that he will not don the Yankees pinstripes next year.
He will not don any uniform ever again - he is in a better world now.
Not to say that he will never play baseball again though...
They never do stop playing ball, in the Field of Dreams...
He had been quoted recently, to boot, saying that piloting a small aircraft was very safe (I paraphrase) ...
His small plane crashed into a fifty-story condominium high-rise that is home to several well-to-do high-brow New Yorkers - heck, some of the condos there go for MORE than a million bucks on today's insane real estate market...
His unfortunate crash into this building cost the life of just one of the high-browed ones - somehow...
I guess they were all out at the time of the tragic accident - out socializing with the jet set and the moronic (both could describe the likes of Paris Hilton and her entourage... But I digress...)
At least three million dollars are gone up in flames - since three apartments were touched...
There are many in New York still that value real estate and money more than people's lives, you know...
Some people never learn - not even with 9/11...
But I digress...
People's thoughts and prayers should rather go out to his family and his fans, especially his 6 year-old son, Christopher, who will never know his dad better now. Our thoughts and prayers must also go out to the family of Tyler Stanger, Lidle's flight instructor, who was also on that tiny plane and was the second one to perish, it turns out. It wasn't any rich stiff from the high-rise that died after all, we've found out in the days following this strange and even a bit surreal accident...
Manhattan will not let this deface it for long, I am sure. Bristling cities bustle with life even amidst tragedies - funny though that the old classic Diane Tell song comes to MY mind at this time... "Manhattan Monotone"...
posted by Luminous (\ô/) Luciano™ @ 11:11 PM
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Aircraft crashes into Manhattan building
Wed Oct 11, 3:18 PM ET
NEW YORK - A small aircraft crashed into a high-rise on the Upper East Side, setting off a fire and startling New Yorkers, police said. There were conflicting reports on whether the aircraft was a small plane or a helicopter.
Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi said an aircraft struck struck the 20th floor of a building on East 72nd Street. Witnesses said the crash caused a loud noise, and burning and falling debris was seen. Flames were seen shooting out of the windows. Video from the scene showed at least three apartments in the high rise fully engulfed in flames.
"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."
Whether anyone was injured was not known, and it was unclear if the crash was an act of terrorism.
The address of the building is 524 E. 72nd Street — a 50-story condominium tower built in 1986 and located nearby Sotheby's Auction House. It has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million.
Yanks' Lidle dies in small plane crash in NYC
BY MELANIE LEFKOWITZ
Newsday Staff Writer
October 11, 2006, 11:20 PM EDT
A single-engine airplane owned by Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle sputtered out of the hazy skies and slammed into the side of an exclusive Manhattan apartment tower Wednesday, killing Lidle and a flight instructor but miraculously leaving no one in the building seriously hurt.
The fiery crash 30 floors above the street sent panicked residents and passersby, who ran as smoke and fire rained down to the street. It evoked still-fresh flashbacks to Sept. 11, 2001, and sparked fears of terror across the city. As hundreds of firefighters and armor-clad cops flooded the streets and helicopters took to the sky, flames shot out of the building's north side while black smoke billowed up and debris poured down.
"What I was seeing was things flying out of the building, which was very reminiscent" of 9/11, said James Trezza, who was walking his dog past the building at 524 E. 72nd St. when the plane struck. "Everyone started running towards Central Park. ... Huge fireballs started coming out. ... It was like, here we go again."
The plane, a Cirrus SR20 registered to Lidle, 34, took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey at 2:29 p.m. without filing a flight plan, officials said. A flight plan was not required, however. After circling the Statue of Liberty, it headed north up the East River, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in an evening news conference. It disappeared from radar near the Queensboro Bridge and a 911 call about the crash was logged at 2:42 p.m., Bloomberg said. It was unclear who was piloting the aircraft at the time, and what caused the crash.
Witnesses told police they heard what sounded like a sputtering engine and that the plane, which investigators say may have just made a U-turn to avoid traveling into LaGuardia Airport's airspace, seemed to try to maneuver away from the building, but to no avail.
According to Laura Brown, an Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Washington, the East River corridor where the plane was flying ends at the northern tip of Roosevelt Island, near where Lidle's plane crashed. "He was about to bump into LaGuardia's airspace," said Brown. "He was going to have to turn around if he was going to stay in the ... corridor."
Brown said no attempt was made to contact controllers for LaGuardia, whose permission the pilot would need to continue flying north. The FAA has no record of a distress call, but she said it's possible that the plane did issue a call to another pilot on another frequency flying in the same area.
On the street below the crash, police said Lidle's passport was found. The pitcher, who earned about $3.3 million from the Yankees and lived in California with his wife, Melanie, and 6-year-old son, Christopher, only recently earned his pilot's license and bought the four-seat plane. A police source said the other man killed was believed to be California flight instructor Tyler Stanger.
"I think riding a motorcycle without a helmet is a lot more dangerous than being a low-time private pilot," Lidle recently told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "The flying? I'm not worried about it. I'm safe up there. I feel very comfortable with my abilities flying an airplane."
The plane that crashed Wednesday is equipped with a parachute in case of trouble, but Wednesday, it apparently did not deploy. The same model plane has been involved in 20 accidents since 1999, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
"The man was going down and he was trying to pull up, but he didn't have enough power," said Harold Vine, who works at the nearby Gracie Square Hospital. "And then I heard a boom."
Twenty-one people, including 15 firefighters, a police officer and five civilians, were taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center with mostly minor injuries. Bloomberg said he spoke to the two occupants of the apartment closest to the impact site, who appeared to be unhurt.
"They were a little bit shaken up," he said. "They said they were sitting there, they heard a noise, instantly, the glass breaking, the metal coming in, and they ran to the door."
The mayor continued: "I think we have to say a little prayer for those we lost, two human beings' lives that were snuffed out. But we should also say thanks that it wasn't anything more serious than this."
Bloomberg praised the response of the police and fire departments, which he said worked together "perfectly." The FDNY sent 39 alarm units and about 170 firefighters to tackle the four-alarm high-rise blaze.
Lt. Edward Ryan of Engine Co. 44 was among the first on the scene. When his unit arrived, he said, people were running and pointing up at the building, where debris was coming down. Firefighters took the elevator to the 30th story, hooked up their hoses and began checking each floor. In apartment 40F, they saw what looked like the wheel well of a car, Ryan said.
"There was fire everywhere, and we kept putting fire out," he said.
Some residents of the posh, 50-floor condominium tower known as the Belaire, which was built in 1989 and where larger apartments routinely sell for more than $1 million, were allowed back inside just a few hours after the collision. But in the frightening moments immediately following the crash, they were racing through the rainy, smoke-filled streets, terrified and scrambling to account for their children, neighbors and pets.
"There was unbelievable black smoke covering everywhere," said mystery writer Carol Higgins Clark, who bought an apartment on the 38th floor for $1.5 million two years ago. "It's just so shocking. My concern is for the people who were inside."
At Yankee Stadium, a single candle was lit on the steps as stunned colleagues across the country remembered Lidle, who spoke often about how safe he believed it was to fly.
"He wasn't just my client. He was probably my closest friend," said Jordan Feagan, Lidle's agent.
Though Bloomberg said it did not immediately look like the pilot had violated airspace restrictions, which permit small planes over the East and Hudson rivers, the crash almost immediately sparked criticisms of rules that allow small planes to fly over Manhattan at all.
Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said it was inconceivable that a small plane could fly over one of the nation's most densely populated areas with virtually no restrictions whatsoever.
"Today, it's terrible that several people were killed," King said. "But this is also a signal to terrorists as to how they could attack Manhattan. There is no restricted air space along the East River and the Hudson River. Just think of the high-profile targets you have off both of those rivers, from the United Nations to the Freedom Tower being constructed off the Hudson River."
Two investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived in New Jersey late Wednesday to start the agency's probe into the fatal crash.
"It's sad for the people that passed," said Myndie Friedman, who works at New York Presbyterian Hospital, "but then again, I'm relieved that another plane didn't hit at 3:06."
This story was reported by staff writers STACY ALTHERR, CHRISTINE ARMARIO, JIM BAUMBACH, JENNIFER BARRIOS, BILL BLEYER, SOPHIA CHANG, JULIET CHUNG, EMERSON CLARRIDGE, CAROL EISENBERG, REID EPSTEIN, JOHN GONZALES, SUSAN HARRIGAN, EDEN LAIKIN, HERBERT LOWE, TAMI LUHBY, CARL MACGOWAN, JOSEPH MALLIA, DAVE MARCUS, JENNIFER MALONEY, WILLIAM MURPHY, ROCCO PARASCANDOLA, SANDRA PEDDIE, LUIS PEREZ, GRAHAM RAYMAN, STEVE SNYDER, LAUREN TERRAZZANO and BRYAN VIRASAMI.
Remembering Cory Lidle
BY JIM BAUMBACH
Newsday Staff Writer
October 11, 2006, 9:40 PM EDT
Cory Lidle was a baseball player by profession, but he didn't look like one, nor did he act like one. He was 5-11 and 175 pounds and preferred chess, poker, pool and, sadly, flying planes.
Lidle, 34, was nicknamed "Snacks" by his Oakland Athletics teammates several years ago for his love of all things sweet, and he helped add some color to the Yankees clubhouse this season by pushing chess.
And then there was his interest in flying, which led him to buy his own plane and take the time to earn his license last winter.
As the tragic news unfolded Wednesday that Lidle was killed when his plane crashed into a high-rise building in Manhattan, Sal Fasano flashed back to the day when Lidle actually purchased the plane.
Fasano, a teammate of Lidle's with the Yankees and Phillies this season, recalls Lidle excitedly coming into the Phillies' clubhouse, so much so that his teammates could tell something was up.
"He brought the pictures of his plane around the clubhouse, showed all the guys," Fasano said from his Minooka, Ill., home. "He showed me, and I have to say, it was a nice-looking plane."
Lidle told The New York Times last month that his interest in flying became serious during 2005, and he met with his flight instructor one day after the regular season ended.
Speaking about his plane, Lidle told the paper he had no fears about an accident. "The whole plane has a parachute on it," Lidle said. "Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the one percent 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."
Baseball players usually spend the offseason at home, mostly kicking back and relaxing. But nobody who knew Lidle was surprised that he spent his four months off learning how to fly.
Lidle was a free spirit in many ways. He spoke to everyone the same way, no matter if you were Derek Jeter or some stranger playing pool one table over.
Just three days ago, Lidle stood in front of his Yankee Stadium locker and cleaned it out, telling reporters he would seek a new two-year contract with perhaps an option for a third year.
Even the way he picked his agent was different. He used Jordan Feagan, who mostly represented football players. "This way when I need him he can focus on me," Lidle said.
And that made sense, in a Lidle sort of way.
He broke in with the Mets in 1997 and was hit with controversy, a trend that followed him throughout his career. Players called him a "scab" for pitching a spring-training inning for the Brewers during the 1995 players' strike, something he never lived down.
Lidle went 82-72 with a 4.57 earned-run average during a career in which he made more than $17 million. But he will be best remembered for the controversies he brought on himself with his words. He spoke his mind and didn't care.
There was the time in 2001 when he badmouthed the management of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, or last May when he said that he was hoping Barry Bonds would not achieve the home-run record.
Lidle spent only two months with the Yankees, acquired a day before the July 31 trade deadline from the Phillies. But twice his words caught him flak, on his first and, sadly, his last day with the team.
After the Yankees acquired him, he questioned his Phillies teammates' drive, saying, "it's almost a coin flip whether the guys behind me are going to play 100 percent."
And then, three days ago, Lidle said the Yankees were "surprised how not ready we were for that series," referring to their loss to the Tigers in the American League Division Series. And when WFAN's Mike and the Mad Dog criticized him for speaking out, he had no problem calling the show and defending himself.
Something players don't normally do, except Lidle.
Lidle had hoped to take to the skies
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FOXSports.com
Posted: 5 hours ago
Cory Lidle, the New York Yankees pitcher who was reportedly on board the small plane that crashed into a building in Manhattan's Upper East side Wednesday, recently told a reporter of his new-found passion for flying.
Lidle, a Southern California resident born in Hollywood, planned to spend more time flying this off-season, hoping to enjoy the freedom that air travel provided.
"It's basically to bring things a little closer to reach," Lidle told the New York Times. "Now I can go to Pebble Beach if I want, and instead of driving there for five hours, I can fly there in an hour and 45 minutes. I can go to Arizona to golf, or Vegas, wherever."
Wednesday's crash into a 50-story condominium tower reportedly killed two people, and rained flaming debris on sidewalks, authorities said. There was no immediate confirmation Lidle was among the dead.
Lidle, acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30 in a trade that also brought the Yankees power-hitting outfielder Bobby Abreu, told the Times 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 percent 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 Yankees acquired Cory Lidle from the Phillies in a July 30 trade. Lidle was presumed dead after a plane he was believed to be in crashed into a Manhattan's high rise. (Elsa / Getty Images)
Lidle pitched 1 1/3 innings in the fourth and final game of the AL Division Series against the Detroit Tigers and gave up three earned runs, but was not the losing pitcher. He had a 12-10 regular-season record with a 4.85 ERA.
He pitched with the Phillies before coming to the Yankees. He began his career in 1997 with the Mets, and also pitched for Tampa Bay, Oakland, Toronto and Cincinnati.
Lidle was an outcast among some teammates throughout his career because he became a replacement player in 1995, when major leaguers were on strike.
Lidle's transition from the Phillies to the Yankees was not without controversy. In talking about his stint with Philadelphia, Lidle was quoted as saying of his days with the Phillies that "on the days I'm pitching, it's almost a coin flip as to know if the guys behind me are going to be there to play 100 percent." He noted he was joining a Yankees team that expects to win all the time.
"That's why I'm most excited about it," Lidle said. "Sometimes I felt I got caught up kind of going into the clubhouse nonchalantly sometimes, because all of the other guys in the clubhouse didn't go there with one goal in mind."
When some of his former Philadelphia teammates disputed those remarks, Lidle backed away from them slightly, saying "what I meant and I think what I said was a little bit different."
"What I meant was over the last couple weeks, when the trade rumors started, we had about 10 to 13 guys that possibly thought they could have been traded. And on any given day, it just seemed like the focus wasn't always on baseball."
Lidle also said he felt he had a good relationship with his ex-teammates.
"I made a lot of good friends in Philadelphia and the last thing that I would want to do is dog anyone in that clubhouse," he said. "If I made it sound like that, it was a mistake."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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