<p>I just heard from a friend that a small plane has hit a building on E. 71st in Manhattan. I’m unable to reach my D who is in lower Manhattan usually but ahh, not a good feeling. Anyone here in Manhattan and know anything more?</p>
<p>OMG, alwaysamom!!! {{{{{MAJOR HUGS}}}}}} I am <em>SURE</em> that your D is just fine, but as soon as you hear from her, let us know, o.k.??? love, ~berurah</p>
<p>I haven’t heard a thing and coincidentally, just got off the phone with my D as she is walking back to her studio in the city. She must be unaware of this happening…she was around 18th street and 5th Ave. </p>
<p>Though, last night, there was some “excitement” with a fire in her building. I mentioned it in Sinners Alley so don’t want to derail this topic.</p>
<p>Edit…to be clear, I was speaking to her at the time you posted and before I read your post so it didn’t come up and she obviously didn’t mention hearing anything.</p>
<p>It’s not much information but here’s what Yahoo has:
<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/plane_nyc[/url]”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/plane_nyc</a></p>
<p>Prayers for your daughter’s safety, Alwaysamom, and for any others affected by this.</p>
<p>AlwaysAMom, it is at a residential building at 575 E. 72nd, not near where your D spends her days, for the most part. </p>
<p>Prayers to anyone in that immediate area. </p>
<p>It is weird but given that my daughter was just on the phone with me during the time you posted and I hadn’t yet read it, that she’d not hear or see anything given she is in that city and outdoors!</p>
<p>My S is across town and a little north of the accident, most likely in class, so I don’t want to try and track him down now. In the very back of my mind, though I tried not to admit it, I would’ve been happy to see him go to school elsewhere, but that’s not how it worked out. I’m sure he’s fine, and your D, too, Alwaysamom.</p>
<p>My thoughts and prayers are with the folks in that plane, and anyone who may have been in the building.</p>
<p>Most likely an accident, not an act of terrorism, but how bizarre… 10-11.</p>
<p>watching the local news</p>
<p>NEW YORK (CNN) – An aircraft has crashed into the middle of a brick luxury high-rise residential building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side at 72nd Street and York Avenue, police officials said. </p>
<p>The building is very close to the East River. There was no word on casualties as firefighters battled the flames that shot up from several windows in the middle of the building. The Federal Aviation Administration has said a “general aviation” aircraft had hit the building. </p>
<p>A North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) spokesperson, which monitors air traffic, told CNN that it had not been tracking the aircraft.</p>
<p>Witness Sarah Steiner told CNN that fires were burning on the ground. “It looks like the plane just flew into someone’s living room there.” (Watch the orange flames ravage the apartment – 1:50)</p>
<p>“It looks as if the aircraft didn’t go into the building but fell down,” she said. “It may be part of the debris burning on the ground.”</p>
<p>Steiner said that when she arrived, she saw fire shooting out of two windows on the 30th floor of the 50-story building. </p>
<p>Video from the scene shows at least three apartments in the high-rise fully engulfed in flames. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/[/url]”>http://www.cnn.com/</a></p>
<p>Things are quiet and under control here, so please don’t worry.</p>
<p>MSN also says it was near a heleport near East River, they do not know if it was a plane or helicopter…this also makes it sound more like an accident</p>
<p>The weather was pretty hazy, and I have heard it was a helicopter…most likely an accident, which, unfortuneately happens alot</p>
<p>accident, or suicide, remember that young man in Florida, I think it was…</p>
<p>just looking at google news, 4-5 plane crashes in the US in the last 24 hours</p>
<p>Garland, it sounds like your child is where mine is. My heart did a bit of a skip when I heard the news…couldn’t for a moment remember my East from my West, you know?? I cannot imagine the agony of those parents who had children away at school on 9/11.</p>
<p>I just really, really want to hug my kid right now.</p>
<p>It seems to be a terrible accident. A fixed-wing (not a helicopter). How awful!</p>
<p>Two confirmed dead so far…hopefully not too many were at home.</p>
<p>I just listened to an eyewitness account and the eyewitness is a pilot himself. He says it was a single engine plane that appeared to POSSIBLY be in trouble. I had only heard of one confirmed fatality. :(</p>
<p>I Googled a map once I’d seen this thread – my kid goes to school on the west side, and lives just north of Central Park, but I couldn’t remember his address. Not nearby, thankfully. I’m praying that the apt building that was hit held a bunch of professionals who were all at work! It looks like it’s near “New York Weill Cornell Medical Center” - maybe it was a flight meant to be landing there? </p>
<p>churchmusicmom – my oldest had just been at school in Philly for a couple weeks on 9/11/01 – it was, as you say, a very difficult time to be so far from home. He had friends at NYU who watched out their dorm window.</p>
<p>MORE INFO
A small plane crashed into a high-rise on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, raining down debris on the neighborhood and shooting giant flames out the windows, police said.</p>
<p>Christine Monaco, a New York spokeswoman for FBI, said there was no indication of terrorism in the crash, but that officials “have been sent to the scene as a routine.” FAA spokesman Jim Peters said all three New York City-area airports are operating normally.</p>
<p>“The initial indication is that there is a terrible accident,” said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.</p>
<p>The aircraft struck the 20th floor of a building on East 72nd Street, said Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi. Witnesses said the crash caused a loud noise, and flames were seen shooting out of the windows.</p>
<p>“It’s a mob scene with police and helicopters circling,” said Sandy Teller, watching from his apartment a block away. “There’s a dozen ambulances and lots of firemen waiting on 72nd, on the corner. There’s lots of stretchers ready, gurneys. And lots of emergency people waiting.”
The crash struck fear in a city devastated by the attacks of Sept. 11 five years ago. Witnesses said sirens echoed across the east side of Manhattan as emergency workers rushed to the scene. The crash triggered a loud bang. Broken glass and debris was strewn around the neighborhood.</p>
<p>“There’s a sense of helpnessness,” Teller said. “Cots and gurneys, waiting. It’s a mess.”</p>
<p>The Federal Aviation Administration said it was too early to determine what type of aircraft was involved, or what might have caused the crash in the middle of a hazy October afternoon.</p>
<p>Witness Sarah Steiner, who lives one block away, told CNN that “The fire was raging out of two windows on approximately the 30th floor. … They are evacuating the building.”</p>
<p>The address of the building is 524 E. 72nd Street - a 50-story condominium tower built in the late 1980s and located near Sotheby’s Auction House. The Belaire Condo, developed by William Zeckendorf Jr., has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million.</p>
<p>Several lower floors of the building are occupied by doctors and administrative offices, as well as guest facilities for family members of patients at the Hospital for Special Surgery, hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Fisher said. No patients were in the high-rise building and operations at the hospital a block away weren’t affected, Fisher said. The Hospital for Special Surgery specializes in orthopedic operations.</p>
<p>Belaire Condominiums. One confirmed dead per NYPD/NYFD. They can’t reach anyone on the 41st floor.</p>
<p>I know at accepted studen’t weekend at Barnard we heard a young lady speak about moving to NYC from California for her freshman year of school. And then 9/11 hapened. But she said the sense of strength and community that resulted from that tragedy was ultimately incredible.</p>
<p>BTW: good news, they have now said the top 8 floors of the building have been cleared, I believe.</p>
<p>Finally reached my D, and like yours, Susan, she had no idea this had even happened. Thank you to all of you for your kind words of concern. I know I overreacted a bit but I remember all too well that day five years ago and it being hours before knowing that all in my immediate family were safe. The outcome that day for others in our family and group of friends was not a good one. This just brought back terrible memories of the sense of panic that day, especially hearing on CNN that NORAD had made the decision to scramble fighter jets over all major U.S. cities a half hour ago. Ugh.</p>
<p>
An MTSU senior (aeronautical student) flew home to Auburn Alabama this past weekend to visit his parents and celebrate his birthday. He left Auburn on Monday and has not yet returned. Search teams have been out looking for him since he was reported to be four hours late on the return flight.</p>