Yankees' player Lidle killed in NY plane crash

NEW YORK, Oct 12: A New York Yankees player was killed when he crashed his small aircraft into a 52-story building on Manhattan's posh Upper East Side yesterday, the famed baseball team said.

The four-seat plane was owned and piloted by Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, 34, who died along with another person, 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.

Smoke and flames poured from the upper floors of the high-rise 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, US 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 Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 11 firefighters were taken to a hospital. Kathy Robinson, a spokeswoman for nearby New York Presbyterian hospital, said the facility had treated an additional five civilians for injuries.

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 dollar. 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.

But 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.'' 'TOTAL DISBELIEF' Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson, who worked with Lidle when they both played for 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 at Shea Stadium.

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

On Wall Street, US 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 from Manhattan, and circled the Statue of Liberty before flying north and eventually crashing, Bloomberg told reporters at a briefing.

The aircraft crashed at East 72nd St. and York Avenue, near the East River, a 1980s building housing mainly upscale residential apartments but which also has a specialized hospital on the bottom 12 floors.

Luis Gonzales, 23, was working in the building remodeling a nearby apartment and saw the crash.

''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,'' he said. ''I am still shaking.'' The plane was flying by visual flight rules, meaning the pilot does not have to be in contact with air traffic controllers.

REUTERS