<p>I always think we’ve moved on, but something like this happens and I realize that we haven’t. I got a call about the crash and I swear my memory brought right back the smell of smoke and burning STUFF.</p>
<p>
<a href=“LIVE Transfer Talk: Barça close in on teen talent Bergvall - ESPN”>http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2621860</a></p>
<p>I’m wondering whether Lidle had very bad luck considering he was the pitcher in the last Yankee game in the series the Tigers swept or if there is a possibility of suicide since he also just bought the plane and was apparently taking flying lessons. He also was out on bereavement earlier this year, so between grieving a death apparently in his family and the Yankee’s defeats, could have been suffering major depression.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s truth or rumor but I read that the Yankees contractually require the players to fly with an instructor and apparently Lidle was flying with an instructor today. It sounds like there was a mechanical problem. He is survived by a wife and son:
It seems that Lidle had very back luck.</p>
<p>From a Sept. 8 NY Times story:</p>
<p>"When the Yankees fly, the pilots are not only in the cockpit. There is another pilot in the main cabin, where the players sit. He is probably studying his hand-held Global Positioning System receiver, tracking the weather and noting the plane’s precise speed and altitude.</p>
<p>He is Cory Lidle, who has been a major league pitcher for nine years and a pilot for seven months. He earned his pilot’s license last off-season and bought a four-seat airplane for $187,000. It is a Cirrus SR20, built in 2002, with fewer than 400 hours in the air.</p>
<p>A player-pilot is still a sensitive topic for the Yankees, whose captain, Thurman Munson, was killed in the crash of a plane he was flying in 1979. Lidle, acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30, said his plane was safe.</p>
<p>“The whole plane has a parachute on it,” Lidle said. “Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the 1 percent that do usually land it. But if you’re up in the air and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly.”</p>
<p>I don’t understand the insinuation of possible suicide or depression at all. The news reports indicate that he made May Day calls. Even a witness on the ground who happens to be a pilot, said right after the incident that it appeared the pilot was in trouble and trying to get back to the airport. Another witness mentions black smoke coming from the plane before impact.</p>
<p>furthermore, if you look at the pictures, the place he hit is right next to the east river. he was supposed to have been banking sharply, and when fitting that with the picture, it would sound as if he was trying to get out above the river (probably because of engine failure or something) and didn’t make it.</p>
<p>One of the eyewitnesses said the right wing of the plane dipped prior to beginning to descend. This is usually a sign of a stall. When a plane has insufficient wind passing over the wings, it will stall and start falling to the ground. His plane was probably too low by the time he realized he might need his parachute. Apparently he obtained his license in the Spring of 2005 and had approximately 100 hours of solo pilot time. That means he had sufficient training and experience to be a competent pilot.</p>
<p>The early indications are they ran out of fuel. Talk about bad luck. It’s possible this was due to a ground crew error but it could also be a mechanical malfunction in the gauges, valves, pumping mechanism, or something as simple as a sensor. I don’t think the parachute mattered. My recollection is that you have to be 7,000-8,000 up to use the parachute on this type of plane and they were only 3,000-5,000 feet high.</p>
<p>What a horrible story. My thoughts are with the families. I was just blocks away today just before this happened. Getting out of the area later on was a nightmare, as traffic was jammed up everywhere. On top of everything else a huge soaking thunder and lightening rainstorm came through the area within just an hour or so of the tragedy. Sad to think that if that it had come through any earlier , Lidle likely would not have flown</p>
<p>News stations out of NY were reporting that the plane may have been required to turn where it did or risk entering LaGuardia airport airspace. But I see some reports that the plane did penetrate restricted airspace. Many people were surprised that planes are still allowed to fly in this area at all. Apparently, they can if they fly at low altitudes, which doesn’t make much sense to me, to say the least. Much debate on this issue, with the pilots putting up big resistance to any restrictions, but all that may be revisited now.</p>
<p>They found the plane and the body of that MTSU senior today (see post #20). He had crashed in an area of Alabama. Terribly sad.</p>
<p>That is tragic, Splashmom, as is this:
<a href=“Sixers' Joel Embiid has injury to meniscus in left knee, MRI shows - ESPN”>http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2622099</a></p>
<p>“She has no clue…”</p>
<p>Oh, my goodness. How very, very sad. I hope the priest was able to get to her before she saw or heard the news some other way in the airport…</p>
<p>Very sad. Public officials or the Yankees (I’m not sure who confirmed Lidle’s identity first) should have waited until his wife was told.</p>
<p>It was a shame that his father had to hear it on the news. His father was watching the action unfold on television when he heard the plane was registered to Lidle. He tried unsuccessfully to reach his son on his cell phone. How very, very tragic.</p>
<p>I’m glad we’re at Orange Alert.</p>
<p>What in the world is wrong with whomever IDed Lidle before his next of kin were notified? Presumably since the police or whomever released that info know Lidle was on board, they also know who the other person was (I assume this info was in the flight records). They had the courtesy to release the other person’s name much later. Too bad that they weren’t so thoughtful when it came to Lidle’s family.</p>
<p>And just in case some of you are blaming the media, it’s not the media’s fault. The media gets the info about who’s dead from the police or other official sources, and if the media gets that info, the media can run with it. Usually in accidents, homicides, etc. police will not release the info to the media until next of kin are notified.</p>
<p>There is a very informative graphic in today’s edition of the online New York Times which shows the path of the plane from Teterboro Airport down the Hudson River, around the Statue of Liberty, up the East River and so on to the crash site.</p>
<p>Northstarmom,
My understanding is that Cory Lidle’s agent released his name to the media. When Mayor Bloomberg had a press conference he never released the name although it was already in widespread circulation.</p>
<p>Early on in the coverage yesterday, long before Bloomberg’s press conference, CNN was reporting that Joe Torre had told them that it was Cory Lidle’s plane.</p>