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Yankee Dies in Plane Crash, Official Says




Cory Lidle was killed in the crash at the Belaire building today.


By MARIA NEWMAN and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: October 11, 2006

Cory Lidle, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, was killed today when his small private plane crashed into a residential high-rise building on New York City’s Upper East Side, igniting several apartments before pieces of the aircraft crashed to the ground, a high ranking city official confirmed late this afternoon.

Police said two bodies were found on the ground shortly after the crash, one of them that of Mr. Lidle, who was a licensed pilot. The plane was registered to Mr. Lidle.

The aircraft struck at about the 40th or 41st floors of the the building, at 524 E. 72nd St., near York Avenue, known as the Belaire. That building and one next door were evacuated, police said. Flames shot out of the building and smoke streamed up into the sky, visible for miles. By 4 p.m., fire officials said the fire was brought under control.

The plane was flying under visual flight rules and was not in contact with air traffic controllers, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it would send a team of investigators from Washington this evening, to take charge of the investigation. One of the five members of the board, Deborah A.P. Hersman, was accompanying the team, which was flying on a government plane from Washington.

The explosion after the crash, and the ensuing fire, interrupted the routine of the bustling East Side neighborhood. The condominium building, known as the Belaire, has 50 floors, with several of the bottom floors housing offices for doctors and other professionals, with residences upstairs. The building is surrounded by several hospitals and medical offices.

Kim Quarterman, 50, a doorman at 411 E. 70th St., said he heard a noise about 2:45 p.m.

“It sounded like a truck gearing down,” he said. “You know how a truck sounds when it’s trying not to hit something? Then I saw a cloud of smoke.”
After that, he picked up his daughter, Chablis Quarterman, 13, at a nearby school.

“My dad and I tried to get as close as we could, but by then, all you could see was smoke,” she said.

Several witnesses said that the plane was flying lower than normal, and then that it turned suddenly, towards the building.

Rob Miranda, a carpenter, had been working on a renovation project on the 46th floor. He and the architect had just finished lunch when they saw an airplane approaching the building. It hit the Belaire on the north side. It had been wobbling, they said, and at first, they thought it was a stunt plane.

“He was out of control,” Mr. Miranda said. “He was on an incline, accelerating as he passed. Then he hooked around the corner, he hit the north side of the building, and you heard a tremendous explosion.”

He said he and the other workers ran, checking the 38th and 39th floors for any people who needed to get out. As smoke quickly began filling up the rooms, they took the elevators down.

Another contractor with a roofing company, Arturo Waulk, was working nearby when he saw the aircraft.

“It was a small plane and it was wobbling, and then all of a sudden it was buried in a building and fires were blowing all around,” he said.

At the Belaire, two men Leonard Cutillo and George Acosta, were waiting to see their doctor. Mr. Cutillo, who was leaning on a cane, had tears in his eyes and was shaking as he recounted what had happened.

“We’re sitting in the building, and we heard this tremendous noise and everything starts blowing out — glass, smoke, flames — and we just got out of there as quick as we could,” Mr. Cutillo said.

Laura Stern, who lives on the 27th floor of 515 East 79th Street, said she was in her living room, which has an unobstructed southern view of the Belaire.

“I saw huge flames shooting out of the Bel Air,” she said at about 4 p.m. “I didn’t see the impact but it’s huge. I can see it now — black smoke. There’s still flames they haven’t put out.

“But it doesn’t look like it’s affected more than two stories.”

Alexa Lagnori, who lives across the street from the Belaire, at 525 E. 72d, was in her apartment when the plane struck.

“I saw the fire and it seemed to be pouring out of five to 10 floors below,” she said.

She said firefighters responded quickly to put out the fire and comb over debris from the plane littering the ground. She got out of the building with her dog, Akira, through a back door.

“It looked as if something had hit the building very hard,” she said . “I thought at first it was a black plane, but it may have just been the smoke. It was frightening how much fire it caused.”

Samuel Klotman, 17, was on the roof of his school nearby with classmates when they saw the plane coming down.

“I could see through the buildings what I thought was a plane headed to this building,” he said. “Then there was a booming noise and a great fire gust shooting out.”

He said he and his classmates started text messaging and calling everyone they knew, “wondering what was happening,” and the school let everybody go home.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company