A small private aircraft carrying a member of New York’s beloved Yankee’s baseball team smashed into a 50-storey apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan yesterday afternoon, briefly scrambling the nerves of the island’s residents just five years after the Twin Tower attacks. It was confirmed overnight that Cory Lidle, a 34-year-old pitcher who recently joined the Yankees, was aboard the plane when it crashed.

He had only told fans last weekend of his pursuit of a pilot’s licence and of his acquisition of the aircraft, a brand new Cirrus propeller plane.

The accident happened on a gloomy afternoon in New York and shattered the peace of the expensive Upper East Side neighbourhood. The plane ploughed into an apartment at about the 30th floor, setting off a fire and filling the sky with black smoke. Parts of the plane, including one of its wings, fell into 72nd Street below, immediately behind the US headquarters of Sotheby’s auctioneers.

Posted: 10|12|06 at 3:37 pm. Filed under: Auction News.