Plane Crash in NYC claims Yankees Pitcher

[Arcademan]

Yankees' player Cory Lidle dies in NY plane crash

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was killed when the small aircraft he was piloting crashed into a 52-story building on Manhattan's posh Upper East Side on Wednesday, the famed baseball team said.

Lidle, 34, who owned the four-seat plane, died along with a flying instructor.

"This is a terrible and shocking tragedy that has stunned the entire Yankees organization," club owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement.

"I offer my deep condolences and prayers to his wife Melanie and son Christopher on their enormous loss."

The crash occurred in overcast weather.

A New York police spokesman said the crash was being investigated as an accident and that while police could not rule out suicide, there was nothing to suggest that.

Smoke and flames poured from the upper floors of the building and more than 100 firefighters were sent to the scene, reviving memories of the September 11 attacks.

In a city still jittery after the attacks more than five years ago, U.S. and New York officials were quick to say -- even before Lidle was identified as the pilot -- they had no reason to believe the crash was related to terrorism.

Born in Hollywood, California, Lidle appeared last Saturday as a relief pitcher in the Yankees' final game of the season when they lost an American League playoff series to the Tigers in Detroit. His journeyman Major League career began with the New York Mets in 1997.

He was traded to the Yankees this summer from the Philadelphia Phillies. His nine-year career record was 82 wins and 72 losses.

New York Presbyterian hospital said in a statement the facility had treated 21 patients -- 15 firefighters, one police officer and five civilians.

The New York Times reported last month Lidle earned his pilot's license in the past year and bought the four-seat Cirrus SR 20 plane, with less than 400 hours of flight time, for $187,000.

In 1979, Yankees all-star catcher Thurman Munson died at age 32 when a plane he was piloting crashed at Akron-Canton Regional Airport in Ohio while he practiced takeoffs and landings.

Lidle told the Times in an interview last month that Yankees fans should not worry he would suffer the same fate, insisting his 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 baseball world reacted with shock to news of Lidle's death. Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson, who worked with Lidle with the Oakland Athletics, said of his friend's death, "You feel like your soul has been totally bruised."

"The reaction is just total disbelief," he told reporters.

Fans in Oakland, where Lidle played for the Athletics in the 2001 and 2002 seasons, honored him with a moment of silence before the start of an American League Championship Series game.

Military fighter jets patrolled several U.S. cities as a precaution after the crash, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks extended losses but quickly recovered once it became clear the crash was not an attack similar to the hijacked plane attacks of September 11, 2001.

The plane took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, just miles (km) from Manhattan, and circled the Statue of Liberty before flying north and eventually crashing, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters at a briefing.

Luis Gonzales, 23, who was working in the building, said: "I was looking out the window and I saw the plane coming so close to us and it swerved to try and avoid the building but it hit the building. I am still shaking."

It was not the first time a plane accidentally crashed into a Manhattan high rise. In 1945, the pilot of a B-25 bomber became lost in fog and disoriented, crashing into the Empire State Building and killing 14 people.

[Tenkuuken]

I'm not much of a baseball fan, much more a lover of planes, but it's distressing to see good people die in nasty ways, not to mention it reminded people in Manhattan of something bad (9/11, I mean).

I guess at the end of the day, even the most careful of people get into trouble too.