small plane/helicopter crashes into building in NYC

Maybe he was drunk. Maybe he was suicidal. Who the hell knows.

I find it hard to believe that someone would take off from Jersey in crap weather, fly into heavily restricted airspace on the other side of not only the river but the city itself, and then just suddenly lose control & plow into a high rise.

WTF was he doing in that area to begin with?

 

He lived a good life. Most people would give their right balls to have the talent to pitch one game in MLB.

 

I doubt he was suicidal. He was with his flight instructor. From what they are saying the news, he was in unrestricted space when problems started having, causing him to go off course into restricted airspace.

 

What was it doing anywhere near 59th Street?

This makes no sense.

 

At the time of the accident the weather was overcast but not crap weather to fly in. Planes fly in much worse weather than right now. The news is SPECULATING that the instructor might have done some surprise maneuvers for the student to react to. It is normal for instructors to do such things like putting blinders on so that students can fly using instruments only. Flying drunk is HIGHLY unlikely.

 

Something mechanically was probably wrong with the plane, causing it to go towards 59th street. The AP reported that a plane in NYC had issued a distress call before the crash.

 

I suppose that would make sense then if he was on an instructional flight and something happened out over the river (weather or mechanical) and they suddenly veered left, plowing into the building.

It still seems very, very bizarre in that case too.

 

Probably flying up the corridor along the east river which runs into 59th street, and pretty much every other street above or below.

 

It definetly is strange. Accidents do happen .This kind isn't one you see everday, especially because it involves a pro athlete.

 

Interesting question. When I first heard it on NPR, they didn't say how many people were involved, what type of plane etc.. and I assumed this exact type of scenario. I figured it was some guy who didn't know how to fly a plane and accidently rammed the WTC.

Boy was I wrong.

 

So there's an unrestricted corridor along the FDR/river?

That would take you next to the UN, the Citibank building, and other potential "targets."

I find it hard to believe that would be allowed. If it is, then that's insane.

 

According to all the stations it's unrestricted. I agree that it's pretty crazy. They should make the planes contact air traffic control or whatever small planes have to contact in restricted space.

 

Here's a thought - if the plane went out of control when it somehow veered left into the city, maybe that would account for people saying it was doing "acrobatics?"

 

Next tiime you fly into LaGuardia, look outside the left side window (or into Newark going the other way) Chances are you will make an approach coming up the East river (or down the other way).

It's not closed airspace, there are planes overflying manhattan constantly, 24-7. It is pretty much impossible to block off the entire island as there is simply way too much air traffic to do so - it's probably the most congested stretches of airspace in the country and possibly the world.

 

yeah. I haven't heard of anyone saying that about it but some people here have said that. It might have looked like that because they were trying to control the plane.

Someone on msnbc just said what you said about that corridor leading to the UN and where the new WTC buildings will be built. They have to try and do something about that.

 

Weather doesn't seem to be the cause of the accident. The news is saying that at the time of the accident :

Cloudy skies
Celiling 1800 ft

light winds aloft
east 10-20 mph

no precipitation
visibility beyond 8 miles

 

Sam,

Living here, of course I knew that's true for the "heavies" - I have yet to see little commuter planes flying around & I live on the east side of Manhattan.

Now that we've been burned by having a "heavy" used as a weapon, we've instuted additional security measures to make sure that doesn't happen again.

I don't think we've done the same for the "lights." Even a small private plane could do a lot of damage in the wrong hands.

 

Well you haven't gone down far south enough, like I said there is a water "runway" aroound the 30's as well as various heliports. Obviously the planes landing and taking off on the East River come in very low, usually over the Brooklyn bridge.

I don't know if there is any place to push GA that is transiting the airspace though. If you push them farther east, then they run into the JFK/LGA traffic patterns. If you push them over the Hudson, then they are on a collision course with planes coming in the opposite way (including a lot of airliners coming in to EWR).

 

yeah too early to say much about how it happened...

I'm not going to put any blame on someone that just died when we don't have any proof he was doing anything dumb.

 

I just saw a report that stated that he was flying home and experienced a mechanical problem with a fuel line and sent out a mayday call. He was trying to nurse the plane back to the airport and it hit the building.

He wasn't 'doing acrobatics'. He was likely fighting for his life. You can remove your foot from your mouth now.