Fallout From NYC Plane Crash

The NTSB is continuing its investigation into how and why the plane carrying Cory Lidle and Tyler Stanger crashed into the Belaire Building on New York City's Upper East Side two days ago.

Meanwhile, the FAA is considering changing the flight restrictions in New York City airspace. Calls for more control over the airspace are being made, particularly by Governor Pataki and Congressman Anthony Weiner, and it might be a good idea. However, it would also mean that more traffic controllers will need to be hired to handle the additional workload. The NYC airspace is one of the busiest in the nation, with three of the country's busiest airports sharing space. Indeed, the crash may have been due to the fact that Lidle and Stanger appear to have wanted to avoid entering the LGA restricted airspace and encountered problems when making the turn to avoid the area.

The Post opines that such flight paths be banned altogether.

Small private planes are free to flit up and down an island that 1.2 million people call home - to no good public purpose whatsoever - and no level of government says boo?

Not the feds.

Not Albany.

And not Mayor Bloomberg - who yesterday bizarrely defended the status-quo rules on plane flights. (Presumably as long as there are no cigars or transfat-infused popcorn aboard.)

We wonder: What will it take to make him and federal officials act - finally - to bolster air security and protect New Yorkers?

Will Wednesday's crash do the trick?

Only last year, a drunken 20-year-old, Philippe Patricio, swiped a small Cessna from Danbury Municipal Airport and flew it for hours over the area, with nary a peep from anyone. An investigation by The Post then exposed gaping holes in security at small airports.

Meanwhile, Lidle's family may lose out on $1.5 million if it's determined that he was at the controls when the plane crashed.

While Lidle wasn't a member of the Major League Baseball Players Association licensing plan because he was a replacement player during the 1994-95 strike, the New York Yankees pitcher was covered by the union's benefit plan.

The plan calls for a $450,000 life insurance benefit and has an accidental death benefit of $1.05 million. However, the plan -- which applies to all big leaguers -- contains an exclusion for "any incident related to travel in an aircraft ... while acting in any capacity other than as a passenger."

Lidle and his flight instructor, Tyler Stanger, were killed Wednesday when Lidle's four-seat Cirrus SR20 crashed into a building on the Upper East Side. While Lidle was the registered owner of the aircraft, it has not been confirmed who was at the controls.

Meanwhile, Stanger might have been an experienced pilot, but wasn't familiar with the NYC airspace, as he was primarily a California pilot.

In reviewing some of the news coverage from this, besides the obvious references to 9/11, some reports made mention of the plane that crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945 in heavy fog (but not the NYT report that I link here). Some of these reports indicated that the B-25 bomber was a small plane, which strikes me as being just plain wrong. The Mitchell was a medium bomber, and was fairly big for its day:

Length: 52 ft 11 in (16.1 m)
Wingspan: 67 ft 6 in (20.6 m)
Height: 17 ft 7 in (4.8 m)
Wing area: 610 ft² (57 m²)
Empty weight: 21,120 lb (9,580 kg)
Loaded weight: 33,510 lb (15,200 kg)

though it was not as big as the B-17 or B-29 bombers that were major components of the USAAF bomber fleet at the time.

UPDATE:
I just received correspondence pointing me to a piece that PM just published on a pilot's perspective of dealing with the hazards of East River corridor, including maps of the airspace and what's involved in nagivating the area. It's worth the time to read through the whole thing.

UPDATE:
Gothamist has a great roundup of reaction and news on the Lidle investigation and in a strange turn of fate, the apartment badly damaged by the crash belongs to the same woman, Kathleen Caronna, who happened to be very badly injured in a freak accident at the Thanksgiving Day parade a few years back.

This is not tasteful. And this is a roundup of media coverage of how they addressed the breaking news that the plane was registered to Cory Lidle.

Just breaking - the FAA has issued new guidelines effective immediately that all fixed wing aircraft will not allowed to fly the East River corridor unless they're in contact with air traffic control. Mayor Bloomberg, who happens to be a licensed pilot, had opposed this kind of move.

Oh, and the plane carrying Alex Rodriguez overran a runway and was stopped by a crash barrier at the end of the runway. Rodriguez and the six others on board were not injured.

Technorati: plane crash, nyc, ues, upper east side, bloomberg, belaire, cory lidle, tyler stanger, new york.