Investigators Recover Plane Parts on Manhattan’s Upper East Side

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After spending the day sifting through the burned remains of Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle’s airplane, investigators yesterday said they were no closer to determining what caused the plane to crash Wednesday.

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board, which is handling the investigation, emphasized that they are in the evidence-gathering stage of their inquiry.

Investigators and work crews recovered the plane’s major parts, as well as a damaged memory chip from the plane’s multi-function display, a hand-held GPS device, and the plane’s instrument panel.

Investigators also said preliminary evidence suggested the plane’s propellers were turning at the time of the crash. “That would have meant the power was going to the propellers” even as it struck the building, an NTSB board member, Debbie Hersman, said.

Lidle and his flight instructor, identified as Ryan Stanger, 26, of La Verne, Calif., were killed when the small aircraft struck the 40th floor of a luxury hi-rise building on the Upper East Side Wednesday. The plane was not in contact with air traffic controllers at the time, as it was traveling under visual flight rules along the East River, aviation officials said.

Yesterday, authorities speculated that the pilot was turning around before East 96th Street to avoid a required check-in with air traffic controllers at La Guardia Airport.

Prior to that, officials traced their route via multiple radar sources. Based on that data, officials believe Lidle and Stanger left New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport heading north, then turned right to travel down the New Jersey coastline in the opposite direction.The plane made a 180-degree turn around the Statue of Liberty before flying over the East River between Roosevelt Island and Queens at an altitude of about 700 feet, investigators said.

The plane dropped off the radar systems at around East 70th Street, as it was turning left about a quarter-mile away from the Belaire building it eventually struck. At that time, it was flying at an altitude of 500 feet.

Although the crash initially conjured up images of the September 11, 2001, attacks, officials said yesterday that law enforcement quickly eliminated the building and its occupants as potential terror targets. “What it looks like is, plain and simple, a very tragic accident,” Mayor Bloomberg told reporters.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly could not confirm a mayday call was made.”Nobody heard it on the aviation frequencies that are used normally in this area,” he said.

Officials said a pilot’s log was recovered from the wreckage. However, “we do not know who was piloting the airplane” when it crashed, Ms. Hersman said.

A day after the crash, throngs of pedestrians stopped to gape at the scarred building, which was covered in soot where the plane struck. Residents and office workers returned, while crews collected debris from the street and nearby buildings.

Among the findings, officials identified the plane’s parachute on the sidewalk below the crash site. A preliminary evaluation indicated that the heat of the fire detonated the charge that would have caused the parachute to unfold, but the parachute did not deploy.

NTSB officials estimated they would recover all of the plane’s debris within the next 24 hours, and complete the site evaluation within days. The investigation will continue at various NTSB laboratories, and the plane’s engine and propellers will be sent to their respective manufacturers for further investigation.


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