First Hand Accounts of Manhattan tall building crash

From New York Times:

Luis Gonzalez, 23, was one of several construction workers and others
viewing plans for renovating an apartment in the Belaire when they
looked out the window and saw a plane headed their way.

“It was coming right at us, directly at us at the floor where we were
working on,” he said.

They could see the pilot’s face, he said, and then they saw the plane
veering toward the right, as if the pilot was trying to avoid hitting
them.

“The whole building shook,” he said. “Then we ran for the elevator.”

Rob Miranda, a carpenter also working in the building on the 46th floor.
He said that the plane had been wobbling, and at first, they thought it
was a stunt plane.

“He was out of control,” Mr. Miranda said. “He was on an incline,
accelerating as he passed. Then he hooked around the corner, he hit the
north side of the building, and you heard a tremendous explosion.”

He said he and the other workers ran, checking the 38th and 39th floors
for any people who needed to get out. As smoke quickly began filling up
the rooms, they took the elevators down.

.....
Mr. Lidle had been a major league pitcher for nine years

He earned his pilot’s license last off-season and tried to assure
everyone that his CirrusSR20, a four seat plane he bought for $187,000.
was safe.

“The whole plane has a parachute on it,” he told The Times last month.
“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.”

The subject of a player piloting a plane was already somewhat sensitive
for the Yankees. In 1979, Thurman Munson, the Yankee catcher and team
captain, was killed in the crash of a plane he was flying.

Owen writes:

He earned his pilot’s license last off-season and tried to assure
everyone that his CirrusSR20, a four seat plane he bought for $187,000.
was safe.

“The whole plane has a parachute on it,� he told The Times last month.
“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.�

Famous last words. I think those Cirrus planes give pilots a false
sense of security. The idea is not to pull a cord when you get into
trouble, it's to stay out of trouble to begin with. Obviously, in
this case, the parachute didn't help.

The subject of a player piloting a plane was already somewhat sensitive
for the Yankees. In 1979, Thurman Munson, the Yankee catcher and team
captain, was killed in the crash of a plane he was flying.

General aviation does not share the safety record of commercially
scheduled airline flights.

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