Baseball player killed after plane hits NY building
Thursday, 12 Oct 2006 06:49
Lidle's plane hit a building on New York's Upper East Side
A US baseball player is one of two people killed yesterday when the small plane they were travelling in crashed into the side of a New York apartment building.
New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, who was piloting the plane, and his flying instructor, crashed into the 52-storey building on Manhattan's affluent Upper East Side, the baseball club said.
As smoke and flames poured from the building in the aftermath of the crash, over 100 fire fighters rushed to the scene, evoking memories of the September 11th terrorist attacks which occurred in the city just five years ago.
Officials quickly sought to assure New Yorkers that the crash was not a terrorist attack.
"There is nothing to suggest that anything even remotely like terrorism was involved," New York mayor Michael Bloomberg told a press conference.
Nonetheless, military fighter jets were deployed over several US cities as a precaution in the aftermath of the crash.
Police officials confirmed that the plane involved was owned by New York Yankee Lidle, whose passport was found at the scene of the crash, which occurred at the Belaire residential tower on East 72nd Street and York Avenue.
A New York police spokesman confirmed that the crash was being investigated as an accident and that while suicide could not be ruled out, there was nothing to suggest that it had been the cause of the collision.
In a statement paying tribute to Lidle, 34, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said: "This is a terrible and shocking tragedy that has stunned the entire Yankees organisation."
"I offer my deep condolences and prayers to his wife, Melanie, and son, Christopher, on their enormous loss," he added.