Yankees pitcher dead in plane crash into NYC building
 

linky
I think the thing that got me the most about this was the crazy uproar that I saw in the news when it was reported a plane hit a building in New York City. No one bothered to explain it was a small, fixed-wing aircraft. CNN, Faux News, MSNBC, all of them sprung into action to cover what was essentially a bad accident. And it's not like no one knew... because in most all the articles I started reading, it would be buried somewhere in the middle that they had reports it was a small plane. But of course that wasn't mentioned as part of the larger scope of the story until they'd all gone through their "could this be an attack?" nonsense.

I heard about this earlier today, terribly sad news. He had a wife and a six year old boy.

As to the reporting of it, would you expect anything different? Its all about fearmongering these days.

Nope.

When I said, "got me the most", I didn't mean "suprised me", I meant "bugged me". lol

'Accident'? President Bush used to own the Rangers...

Yeah, I agree the reporting was done poorly, but reading the news online as it came in I knew that it was either a helicopter or a small plane, which really doesn't mean much as the planes that hit the WTC were air line planes and not cessnas or small planes like originally reported.

I don't know if this is insensitive, or cynical, or what... But I wonder if the owners of that building would have any traction in a suit against Lidle's estate to fix the building.

I'm amazed the planes got through. Where was the security?

Thirtieth floor, eh? Almost 600 feet?

Going for the mile-high-club and only giving it 10%?

Leave it to a Yankee.

actually all the local news all said that it was either a small fixed wing of a helicopter. In fact for the longest time they were claming it was a helicopter because there was on in the vicinity moments before the crash.

and I actually know someone who works in that building. I know they are safe, but still waiting to hear from them...

2 lives were confirmed lost. but what about the people that were already on that building. did he recently just get his license?

Okay, first the obligatory "this is sad" comment.

Now, on to analog's take on how this was reported. I'm growing increasingly weary of the media taking every possible news story and spinning the terrorist angle on it.


E. coli in the spinach? Terrorists???
Small plane apparently loses control and crashes into building? Terrorists????
Gas prices falling? Terrorists???
First cold weather of the season? Terrorists??????
Runaway bride sues ex-fiancee? Terrorists???????
Cute puppy has squirrel for best friend? Terrorists????
Jessica Simpson's butt bigger than last year? Terrorists???

I swear I think there's some kind of directive that requires them to tie as many stories to terrorism and 9/11 as they can.

The Daily Show displayed it best: America Freaks Out.

When I read it on the fox news website it said it was a small plane and that no terrorism was suspected. This was early in the afternoon. There was even speculation it was a helicoptor.

I'm relieved that nobody in the building or on the ground was hurt. I can't help but think back to the early hours of 9/11 and remember my assumption that it was a similar accident involving a small aircraft.

Regarding the media coverage, I'm disheartened that the death of the Flight Instructor Co-pilot is getting almost zero attention. He had a life too.

Maybe he was...a terrorist? Dun dun duuuhhh


Maybe i'm being dense, but seeing where he crashed into a building on a map, wouldn't he have had an idea that maybe he shouldn't have been flying around buildings?

Agreed, the night of 9/11 when they were talking about what VIP's and well known people were on the various planes it really pissed me off for some reason. We had maybe up to 5000 people dead at that time, and all they were talking about it from a People magazine perspective.

I wonder how long it will take for this to become a conspiracy theory. After all 9/11/01 backwards is 10/11/06 or something.. heh.

I do know that I'm surely going to hell as though it was sad in a way, I felt some satisfaction that it was a Yankee's pitcher.

man it's getting hot in here all of a sudden..

Oh you are so going to hell, heh

if it was a nobody it wouldn't get the press it is getting and if Yankees were in the WS, the more press it woudl have gotten....

but still, nuts.

Exactly. There should have been no way in hell any kind of an aircraft could have gotten that low in a metropolitan area. I don't even mean because of 9/11, I mean just in general, Avionics rules and regs. Post 9/11, he shouldn't have been able to get *anywhere near* that rediculously low altitude. I'd love to read a transcript of the air traffic controller's interactions with them. see what what going on. So far no one (in the news) has suggested there was any kind of malfunction with the aircraft....

Baseball Jihad! Take that, America!

This is a good example of those "more popular in death" cases.

I saw on the news that was on in the pizza shop I happened to step into that they launched fighter planes to patrol over major cities after this happened. Is this true?

Yesterday, I attended the funeral of a fallen marine, just 23 years old. There were news cameras; the procession, which included police cars and motorcycles, about 60 of us from the PGR, a huge amount of family and friends, the marine's battalion, Marine drum and bagpipe corp., was over a mile long and along the route were citizens, schoolkids, roadcrews, etc., holding flags, hands over hearts, standing at attention.
But hell, just another boy soldier killed...but a baseball player that flew too low-THERE'S the big news....:rolleyes:
This just proves the askewed values held. Privately, we bury heroes; publicly we worship money-makers.

Well, we all know the reason for that, is that the Instructor never did play for the Blue Jays...

...and then do you remember this?

http://www.withthecommand.com/2002-J...pireplane.html
http://www.withthecommand.com/2002-Jan/bomber.jpg http://www.withthecommand.com/2002-Jan/empire%202.jpg

Enuff already!

It wasn't like they got lost or were flying in places that aren't allowed. The plane was having mechanical failures and lost altitude crazy fast.

Anybody seen this hilarious photo yet of Alec Baldwin trying to bluster his way past the police cordon?

"Look, you fascist asshole, I'm a VERY FAMOUS ACTOR and I'm SOOOO much more important than these mere "people" over here, so get out of my way and let me through because my insights would be INVALUABLE, and besides - my publicist has already set up the photo-op where I get to stand nearby and look all concerned and whatnot."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3..._us_crash_.jpg

Linky

Alex Baldwin was really quoted as saying this:

Quote:

Hey. That's my friend's plane and you have no right keeping me from going into that building! This is Long Island; it's my turf. If you don't like my negative attitude, tell it to the Democrats who happen to adore me. Sheesh!

:D :D

From an article in today's Wall Street Journal regarding the crash:

Seems like flying low is pretty much kosher. I know next to nothing about FAA rules and regulations, but the portion of the article quoted above was very interesting to me.

Huh. I had no idea (to Jimellow's post). I rather hope we don't have similar tolerances in Los Angeles.

Those rules apply everywhere. Since we don't have an abundance of planes crashing into buildings they seem to work fine.

Here is a photo of the co-pilot (instructor).

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/2...hRkfkm6_BiqQ--

Pilot Tyler Stanger poses inside his plane at Brackett Field Airport in LaVerne, Calif., in the Spring of 2004. Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle said flying relieved the stress of his pro baseball life. But to his instructor, Tyler Stanger, it was life itself, and had been since he was a boy. Both were heading back to California when Lidle's plane slammed into a Manhattan high-rise, Wednesday Oct 11, 2006. (AP Photo/David Pardo)

how could they be flying back to california?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/12/plane.crash/index.html

I would like to know why people like to add "And this person had a wife/husband and a kid"? Does it make the story more depressing to know that he had a family? What if lived alone with just a dog? Would someone add "Oh, and he had a dog". I am sure people would just shrug and not think any more about it.

Yes, it does make it more tragic to leave people behind.

and now of course, the politicians are going to demand that general aviation in new york be clamped down on, because we all know terrorists in planes listen to air traffic control and don't know what a transponder is or how to disable it. I don't think anyone needs a damned air traffic control to tell them not to crash into a building, its just a freak accident that possibly could have happened if the space was controlled or not.

this whole thing reminds me of playing grand theft auto 3, flying around liberty city in the dodo, and if you ever flew the dodo you know its really hard to control and you just can't help crashing. a lot. but even if you crash it you can usually take off with it again, unless it flips over and explodes. oh, ban grand theft auto 3, it encourages our children to fly planes that are hard to control and crash! not to mention banging whores and then killing them and taking the money back afterwards!

What the two pilots were doing was flying in a VFR corridor below Class B airspace. As long as you stay below 1,100 feet and over the Hudson or East rivers, you don't need to be talking to ATC at all. What they were doing was perfectly legal and safe, although in this particular case something went wrong.

Nobody bats an eye that helicopters fly in and around NYC all the freakin time, but as soon as someone famous crashes everyone is up in arms about planes flying so low and "Think of the children!! Won't someone think of the children!!"

This whole situation is retarded, because you have a lot of non aviation types talking about what should be and what should not be in regards to flying. Yes it was bad that the plane crashed into a building, but it was an accident. It was not on purpose.

However, leave it to the FAA and NTSB to pass judgments on what is safe and what is not. You can regulate everything to high hell, but things will still happen and planes will still fall out of the sky. Regulating everything under the sun does not necessarily make things safer, because people are people and accidents will always happen.

And yes, you can fly low over cities everywhere in the US. Small aircraft do it all the time. Planes go down all the time, but you never hear about it until they have a fucking celebrity onboard and then everyone turns into a safety expert and armchair pilot.

Hal, I'm pretty sure it is. I'm in DC and there were a number of fighter jets screaming overhead at really low altitudes that day, for no apparent reason. We get lots of commercial air traffic over campus (and occasionally the White House helicopters), but I've never seen fighters do it before.