The National Transportation Safety Board released information about the October plane crash into an Upper East Side Building. It turns out that before the crash, the Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, had only spent four hours flying his new plane, a Cirrus SR20. He had only 12.5 hours of actual flight time in that model, and a total of 88 hours flying time (48 hours as a "pilot in command"). Lidle's flight instructor Tyler Stanger who was also killed in the crash had 2,500 hours of flying time.
It's still unclear who was piloting the plane, but Lidle was seen entering the left side of the plane at Teterboro Airport. The NY Times reports that even though the plane has dual controls, the left side is where the "pilot in command" usually sits. Determining who was piloting the plane may be important for insurance payouts. According to the AP, Major League Baseball offers a $450,000 life insurance benefit and a $1.05 million accidental death benefit, but the accidental death benefit excludes "any incident related to travel in an aircraft...while acting in any capacity other than as a passenger."
The East River corridor that Lidle and Stanger had flown over is narrower (especially with the other airports' nearby) and is more difficult to navigate than the Hudson River corridor. Right now, there's a temporary ban on flight traffic over the East River; it's unclear whether the NTSB will make the restrictions permanent. And last November, NTSB said that the wind and a bad left turn caused the plane to crash into the Bellaire apartment building on East 72nd Street on October 11.
Photograph over the Hudson River from a plane by Todd McClamroch; photograph of the hole in the Bellaire by Jeff Christensen/AP
