United States: Investigators searched through debris in a high-rise building in Manhattan yesterday, looking for clues as to why a light aircraft crashed on Wednesday, killing a baseball star and his flight instructor.
New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his instructor, Tyler Stanger, died when the four-seat Cirrus SR20 veered off course and slammed into the building on East 72nd Street, which houses a medical centre and residential apartments.
The crash triggered fears of a terrorist attack and has raised questions about rules governing the flight of small aircraft in Manhattan. Commercial aircraft flying over New York are subject to severe restrictions and must fly at least 1,000 feet above the skyline on routes agreed with air traffic controllers. Light aircraft and helicopters, however, are allowed to fly below 1,100 feet along the rivers alongside Manhattan without informing air traffic control of their route.
The aircraft that crashed on Wednesday was about the same weight as an SUV car and could not have caused the kind of destruction seen on September 11th, 2001. Counter-terrorism experts said yesterday, however, that a small aircraft packed with explosives could be used for a spectacular terrorist attack on landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge or the United Nations, which faces the East River.
Mr Lidle and his instructor took off from a suburban New Jersey airport on Wednesday afternoon, circled around the Statue of Liberty, flew past lower Manhattan and north above the East River before something went wrong and the aircraft veered off course. The crash was the third this year involving the SR20, with engine failure blamed for the previous two.
The US military scrambled fighter aircraft above a number of US cities immediately after the crash, although officials concluded within 30 minutes that it was not a terrorist act.
"My first reaction when I saw an airplane going into a building in New York City was, 'Oh no, we've got another 9/11'," Adm Timothy Keating, commander of US Northern Command, told AP.