http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/234897/1/.htmlNEW YORK : A small aircraft piloted by a US baseball star crashed into a high-rise apartment building in Manhattan on Wednesday, killing two people and triggering memories of the September 11 attacks five years ago.
The plane, a Cirrus SR20, was being flown by New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, 34, who was one of the two dead, the ESPN television network and other US media reported.
The single-engine plane struck the upper floors of an apartment building in Manhattan's upper east side around 2:45 pm (1845 GMT), raining down flaming debris.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the plane carrying a student pilot and instructor took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, circled the State of Liberty and then headed up the East River before falling off radar screens.
He ruled out terrorism and said, "Sadly an accident like this cost two people their lives. But I don't know that there's any greater significance".
The governor of New York state, George Pataki, said the crash triggered a heightening in alert levels. "The federal authorities have taken steps to put air cover over some of the cities in the country simply as a precaution," he said.
"Obviously, we have taken steps and the security level has been significantly heightened even from the normal level orange conditions until there is a final determination as to what exactly happened here," he added.
The television images of the burning building evoked memories of the devastating attacks of September 11, 2001 on New York and Washington when Al-Qaeda militants flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people.
Bright orange flames and columns of smoke billowed into the sky from the 50-storey building on the affluent upper east side of Manhattan. Firefighters contained the blaze at about 3:30 pm (1930 GMT).
Chris Foege, 38, a sales representative, was walking on a nearby street when she heard the crash into the building located on East 72nd Street. "I just stood there in shock, I thought 'this can't be happening to us again,'" she said.
It was like "9-11 all over again."
"It was just incredibly loud, and it smelled really bad," she said.
Emergency helicopters flew overhead as a crowd watched from streets below packed with emergency vehicles. Police closed off traffic to at least a six-block area around the site, which is down the street from the Sotheby's auction house and the Hospital for Special Surgery.
"There was a boom sound, but we weren't sure what it was, and then they told us to evacuate the building," said Lilian Regolia, who works opposite the building struck by the plane.
Another witness, Diane Tarantini, said: "I was sitting right in front of the building. I heard a loud whistling noise, I looked up and saw a flash ... stuff started falling down."
Deputy White House spokesman Tony Fratto said President George W. Bush was informed shortly after the crash. "The president is aware of it," Fratto said. "There is no change of the alert level."
The military nonetheless scrambled fighter jets above US cities as a precaution, said Admiral Tim Keating, commander of the US Northern Command.
Keating would not say how many cities were under air cover. "Fighters, along with early warning systems, they've been up there for half an hour, 45 minutes," Keating said.
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokeswoman said private aircraft have the right to fly up the East or Hudson rivers.
"They were flying by visual flight rules in that corridor and (the plane) was not in contact with a tower," FAA spokeswoman Diane Sticaliere said. - AFP/de
