You know the people there are thinking "Oh my God, not this again...!"

It doesn't have to be a terrorist attack for it to be a tragedy. Myself, I don't think it was terrorism. It's kinda too small-scale - there's more reasons for this thought -, it looks more like an accident. There's plenty of precdent for aircraft hitting buildings in NYC. According to CNN(HN), the aircraft supposedly had some sort of engine trouble and hit the buidling nose-up.

The worst part is everyone's gonna hear (If I'm right) that it wasn't terrorism, everyone's gonna be happy that we aren't under attack, we'll all see it as good news, and most everyone will lose sight of the fact that this is still a tragedy.

EDIT:FBI spokeswoman Christine Monaco said there was no indication the crash was a terrorist attack but that officials "have been sent to the scene as a routine." Yes, it's a Fox News link. Don't like it? Oh well.

I didnt belive it was terroism to be honest, but its still sad as the person (people) piloting the plane are probably dead 🙁

EDIT: Slighty updated report:
30 minutes ago

NEW YORK - A small plane crashed into an Upper East Side high-rise Wednesday, shooting flames out the windows, raining debris on the sidewalks below and rattling New Yorkers' nerves exactly one month after the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Police confirmed 2 people are dead.

Christine Monaco, a New York spokeswoman for FBI, said there was no indication of terrorism, but that officials "have been sent to the scene as a routine." FAA spokesman Jim Peters said all three New York City-area airports were operating normally.

"The initial indication is that there is a terrible accident," said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.

Nevertheless, fighter jets were scrambled over U.S. cities as a precaution, the Pentagon said.

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.

"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 firefighters 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.

"There's a sense of helplessness," Teller said. "Cots and gurneys, waiting. It's a mess."

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.

Richard Drutman, a professional photographer who lives on the building's 11th floor, said he was speaking on the telephone when he felt the building shake.

"There was a huge explosion. I looked out my window, and saw what appeared to be pieces of wings, on fire, falling from the sky," Drutman said.

He and his girlfriend quickly evacuated the building.

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.

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.

It's kinda sad that most people immediately think NINE ELEVEN OHMYGOD and thenshrug it off when it isn't.

Also: Apparently the plane belongs to Cory Lidle, a pitcher for the Yankees. They don't know if it was him flying or not.

They found his passport on the street below.

...How anything could have been recovered, but....

.... :/

Yet everyone else who was in the building or in the street below are all safe.

R.I.P. Cory.

Not terrorist? Well then, people need to learn how to fly their planes...

On a lighter and less sarcastic note, r.i.p. to the victims.

Article from Yahoo! Sports on Cory Lidle:

Thrill of a lifetime

By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports
October 11, 2006

NEW YORK At the controls of the instrument that took his life, Cory Lidle seemed at peace. He would step into his single-engine Cirrus SR-20, crank the propeller and toss all his worries to the wind as he piloted his airplane through it.

"No matter what's going on on the ground in your life," Lidle said recently, while chauffeuring a Comcast SportsNet crew on a trip above Philadelphia, "you can go up in the air and everything's gone."

Just like that, everything was gone Wednesday. Lidle, the 34-year-old New York Yankees right-hander, lost his life and left his wife widowed and his son without a father after his plane crashed into a 50-story Manhattan apartment building, burrowing a fiery hole in its side and, initially, spurring thoughts from onlookers that it might be a terrorist attack. Nothing of the sort. Simply an accident with another athlete whose thrill-seeking went horribly awry.

Still, the shock resonates every time, the memories of other ballplayers lost in air crashes Roberto Clemente and Thurman Munson most famously and all the way back to Marv Goodwin in 1925 reminding us that this does happen, perhaps more often than most realize. In the last year, according to the National Transportation Safety Board's accident database, there have been 262 fatal airplane crashes in the United States, including Lidle's. Over the last 10 years, that number jumps to 3,159.

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If this concerned Lidle, he did a masterful job of masking it. When he walked into the clubhouse each afternoon, he would tote around books on flying. Running into old teammates and there were plenty, as Lidle spent time with seven different teams he talked about his pilot's license and his plane and how he would love to take anyone willing for a whirl.

"And I told him definitely I'd love to, if it ever came up where he could," said New York Mets utilityman Chris Woodward, a teammate of Lidle's in Toronto. "I would do it. I would love to go up there."

Woodward grew up piloting model airplanes with his father and dreamed of enrolling in the Air Force. He said he plans on learning to fly once his career ends, something Lidle's accident would not change.

"It wouldn't have any bearing," Woodward said. "It's not what you think about. If that was the case, I'd never buy another car."

Those were words Lidle might have spoken. He never was lost for them and always seemed to find himself in the middle of minor tiffs. Mets closer Billy Wagner, his former teammate in Philadelphia, called Lidle a "chicken" for talking ill of the Phillies after he'd been traded to the Yankees this year. Reliever Arthur Rhodes, aggrieved by Lidle's comments, called him a "scab" Lidle was a replacement player during the 1994-95 strike and said: "The only thing Cory Lidle wants to do is fly around in his airplane and gamble."

Hey, we all have our vices.

Another of Lidle's was his stubbornness, the kind that bore itself out on the field. Oakland manager Ken Macha, who was the bench coach when Lidle found his first big-league success with the A's, remembered the July 14, 2002 game against Baltimore when Lidle faced Jay Gibbons. Before the game, pitching coach Rick Peterson told him not to throw Gibbons changeups. In Gibbons' second at-bat, Lidle did, and Gibbons hit a two-run homer.

"[Lidle] was pretty much a "

Macha stopped himself.

"He was going to do things his way."

Peterson chewed out Lidle on the bench. Gibbons stepped up again two innings later.

"I was keeping my chart over there where these balls were hit, so I had the spot marked right there," Macha said. "I could see the seat where it went in Baltimore.

"Next at-bat, Gibbons comes up and there's two men on. He threw him another changeup, and he hit another homer. I swear to God it went in the same seat."

Baseball spent all of Wednesday telling Lidle stories. Detroit closer Todd Jones, his teammate with Cincinnati and Philadelphia, reminisced how Lidle planned on holding a poker game after the Yankees beat the Tigers. St. Louis pitcher Mark Mulder, a teammate in Oakland, remembered golfing with Lidle and how Mulder's shoulder surgery last month took place across the street from the Belaire, the building into which Lidle's plane crashed. Mets third-base coach Manny Acta spent the whole day picking up his phone and answering, "I'm fine." Of all the skyscrapers in New York, he lives in the Belaire and had planned on moving out Thursday.

Televisions around Shea Stadium and McAfee Coliseum flicked to non-stop Lidle coverage. He had spent his first big-league season (1997) with the Mets and the best years of his career (2001, 2002) with the A's. He was one of them, everyone would recall, flaws and all, and no longer was he there.

"You feel like your soul is just totally bruised right now," Peterson said.

Early reports indicate a fuel problem that started almost immediately after Lidle's plane took off from Teterboro airport in New Jersey. Lidle and his flight instructor had sent a mayday call. The Cirrus carved a route around the Hudson River and up the East River before the crash. His peace had been interrupted, and the words he spoke after he landed the plane with the Comcast crew hung that much heavier.

"Stick the landing, walk away," Lidle said, "and it's a good day."

---------------------------

All the local news channels in my area were still covering the story this morning. According to the reports, when the plane crashed, the engine was still in the apartment building while most of the rest of the plane fell to the ground below. There was even footage of the crash from a Coast Guard security camera that showed the fireball that resulted upon impact.

Last night, many people who had been evacuated from their homes still couldn't get back inside because the police had a blockade set up and they weren't letting anyone go by. It didn't help that it was raining and wet.

Mr. Lidle only had his pilot's license for less than a year, and he leaves behind a wife and 6-year old kid. =(