Plane Crashes in to NYC Highrise

Oh Gezz Now they are saying it wasa Cirris registered to Yankees pitcher Cory Litel
 
last report (2 min ago) was that it departed TEB, was a twin (not a cirrus), and was vfr. Airplane was supposedly flying erratically before impact, just missing another building.

I can only come up with four broad causes:
1. Deliberate act of suicide - maybe the ex wife lived in the apartment or something similar.
2. An incredibly bad manuevering accident where the pilot unintentionally hit the building while in full control of the airplane. Me, I'd choose to make the 180 to the east, and while I might bust airspace I'm less likely to hit concrete and steel.
3. Control system failure, rendering the airplane uncontrollable.
4. Pilot incapacitation, rendering the airplane uncontrolled.

Of the four broad causes, only #2 is something that rulemaking has a chance to affect, because it's the only scenario where the pilot is actually flying a controllable airplane, and attempting to respect the rules.
 
Eamon said:
Oh Gezz Now they are saying it was registered to Yankees pitcher Cory Litel
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I just heard that E, a friend called me... holy !#@$ I hope this isn't true.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
If this were during baseball season, the bookies would be swamped right now...
 
now they report it was an SR20, registered to Lidle (pardon the spelling), and there's a rumor of a mayday call related to fuel. Of course, there was enough fuel to start a significant fire, but if the rocket motors lit off that would be hot enough to start metal fires as well.

A single engine airplane makes scenario three (failure of major flight system - the engine) more possible.
 
CNN is now reporting that "first responders say an emergency call was made from the plane reporting a fuel problem"
 
Cory Litel's passport was found on the street near the wreakage. According to NBC.
 
CNN now thinks Litel was only person on board.

I love Miles OBrien in these situations, guy knows what hes talking about.
 
Fox news: "Why they let little planes fly around Manhatten is beyond me" "I thought this airspace was restriced and controlled, but apparently it's wide open" :dunno:
 
jeez, the more i listen to this, the more I think we need to get Miles Obrien for the next president of AOPA or something. answers Wolf Blitzers dumb questions with grace and explains things in laymans terms.
 
And keep in mind that Fox news isn't really trying to report anything, they're just trying to fill the viewer with righteous anger, so he'll stay tuned.

Everytime I see Bill O'Reilly he reminds me of the jackass fire-n-brimstone evangelical preachers I used to hate when I lived in Kentucky.

And I'm a moderate Republican, by the way.
 
LOL Wolf Blitzer just called Teterboro a small airport in northern new jersey! WTF!!???
 
As I said on the red board, with the pilot being someone relatively famous, that could be the best thing for GA in this situation. With is being someone somewhat known, the public is more likely to go "Oh, that's a shame." Instead of being chicken littles.
 
N2212R said:
As I said on the red board, with the pilot being someone relatively famous, that could be the best thing for GA in this situation. With is being someone somewhat known, the public is more likely to go "Oh, that's a shame." Instead of being chicken littles.
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Perhaps. But then again, there are the rules that were imposed after the Munson crash... And the Dubroff crash... and the rock&roll crash... and...
 
bkreager said:
Fox news: "Why they let little planes fly around Manhatten is beyond me" "I thought this airspace was restriced and controlled, but apparently it's wide open" :dunno:
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They had a U.S. Rep on from the Homeland Security committee who said they might need some rules that keep airplanes from flying close to buildings...like I dunno...2000 feet?
 
tonycondon said:
jeez, the more i listen to this, the more I think we need to get Miles Obrien for the next president of AOPA or something. answers Wolf Blitzers dumb questions with grace and explains things in laymans terms.
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Agreed. Setting aside the horrible event, I am quite surprised to see CNN, a major news leader accurately report this accident and aviation information. Miles O'Brien is quite an asset to CNN, and to the aviation industry.

Cory Lidle and any others lost in this accident will be greatly missed.

Jason
 
Pataki is calling for restrictions to prevent small planes over Manhatten. He's referencing the FRZ...

BOHICA.
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
Agreed. Setting aside the horrible event, I am quite surprised to see CNN, a major news leader accurately report this accident and aviation information. Miles O'Brien is quite an asset to CNN, and to the aviation industry.
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The only reason CNN is getting it partly right is due to Miles O'Brien being a pilot. On the other hand Fox News is relying on some dead beat private detective who knows nothing about aviation. Score one for CNN in the credibility department. How hard would it be for Fox to get a pilot/aviation consultant on the line to talk reality? Morons. And I like Fox!
 
At least Bloomberg sounds like he isn't a complete friggin moron, unlike the reporters who are asking the questions...
 
Yippee!

Michael Bloomberg
"I dont think this has anything to do with the security of New Yorks airspace"

Lets hope that thinking keeps up.
 
tonycondon said:
jeez, the more i listen to this, the more I think we need to get Miles Obrien for the next president of AOPA or something. answers Wolf Blitzers dumb questions with grace and explains things in laymans terms.
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That is an excellent suggestion for any number of reasons. Credibility, telegenic, with an extremely well known face and name.
Great idea!
 
Bloomberg did a good job - two dead, no people killed except the aircraft occupants. Fire damage but no structural damage to the building. No blaming GA or anything else.
 
Anthony said:
The only reason CNN is getting it partly right is due to Miles O'Brien being a pilot. On the other hand Fox News is relying on some dead beat private detective who knows nothing about aviation. Score one for CNN in the credibility department. How hard would it be for Fox to get a pilot/aviation consultant on the line to talk reality? Morons. And I like Fox!
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But CNN kept cutting off Miles O'Brien becuas ehis actual facts were not entertaining.
 
N2212R said:
As I said on the red board, with the pilot being someone relatively famous, that could be the best thing for GA in this situation. With is being someone somewhat known, the public is more likely to go "Oh, that's a shame." Instead of being chicken littles.
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I was thinking the same thing. Sad but true Ed
 
Bloomberg did well.
The e-mails being sent to the news agencies by pilots are being read! Way to go, pilots!
:blueplane:
ApacheBob
 
I was invited to go to a poker game in california last year with my mooney partner phil. He was going to corys place in california. Cory rode in our mooney several times and was a close friend of phils, and the reason for cory wanting to get his PPL. Our other friend erin talked with cory this morning about an hour before he went flying. They talked about his flight today.
Sad loss.
 
From the New York Times, September 8, 2006:

September 8, 2006
In Lidle, Yanks Have Extra Pitcher and Backup Pilot

By TYLER KEPNER
When the Yankees fly, the pilots are not only in the cockpit. There is another pilot in the main cabin, where the players sit. He is probably studying his hand-held Global Positioning System receiver, tracking the weather and noting the plane’s precise speed and altitude.
He is Cory Lidle, who has been a major league pitcher for nine years and a pilot for seven months. He earned his pilot’s license last off-season and bought a four-seat airplane for $187,000. It is a Cirrus SR20, built in 2002, with fewer than 400 hours in the air.
A player-pilot is still a sensitive topic for the Yankees, whose captain, Thurman Munson, was killed in the crash of a plane he was flying in 1979. Lidle, acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30, said 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.”
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Note the date. :/ Sigh.
 
Cory Lidle's passport is reported to have been found at the site. Lidle was traded to the Yankees on 7/31, and placed on the Yankee's "bereavement list" on 8/13 (indicating a death in the close family). And, of course, the Yankees are in considerable turmoil after their ALDS loss to Detroit this past week, which included a disasterous outing for Lidle, charged for the loss in his only appearance in the series. Lots of life disruption going on there...

...reminds me of a couple of guys I flew with in the Navy, both of whom flew into the ground in 1974, in one case doing something really foolish (unauthorized low altitude acro) and in the other looking down when he should have been looking up (playing with the computer after a bomb run in a single seater). Both were way up over 150 in the previous year on the life stress scale for the previous year. Applying that to Lidle...

Death in family: 60
Business or work role change (trade): 35
Moving to new residence (Philly to NYC): 15
Vacation (end of season): 10
Trouble with boss (Steinbrenner is really beaked): 20

That's 130 we know of in the last 90 days...makes one wonder how much of his mind was on his flying...
 
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Damn this is too bad, but the coverage is bad as usual.....within 2 minutes of my tuning into FOX I got the old "I heard the engine sputter and possibly stall..." Aren't there any pilots working for these news outlests except Miles O'Brien and Bob Arnot?!?!?

Pete
 
ReverendSlappy said:
This could entirely be coincidence, but if you go to http://www4.passur.com/lga.html and zoom into 5 miles, start it at about 14:47, and watch for a GA plane come up the East River at 1000FT... it winds up right at about 72nd street, if I'm reading the map correctly.

Use the link but set the time at 14:40 and watch a target at 700 feet decend to 600 feet and make a left turn exactly where the building would be and disappear. This is the plane.
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I was watching MSNBC for awhile, and they had this Dylan Ratigan guy on, and referred to him as a pilot. He made a couple interesting comments regarding student pilots and that they shouldn't be allowed in the area of the accident, etc....

So I was curious and plugged his name into the FAA database, and if that is his real name, he is listed as a Student Pilot - Glider.... and the date on the date on the cert was 10/22/04....
 
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