A small airplane has crashed into a building in New York City. It hit a 50 story condo on 524 E. 72nd Street, and part of the building is on fire. There are no indications yet that this is anything other than an accident, the building is right on the East River, and so it is possible that it was hit by a small plane or helicopter that got lost:
Witness Sarah Steiner told CNN that fires were burning on the ground. “It looks like the plane just flew into someone’s living room there.” “It looks as if the aircraft didn’t go into the building but fell down,” she said. “It may be part of the debris burning on the ground.” Steiner said that when she arrived, she saw fire shooting out of two windows on the 30th floor of the 50-story building. Video from the scene shows at least three apartments in the high-rise fully engulfed in flames. [Link]Television views of the fire showed flames shooting out of four windows and smoke that streamed up into the sky, visible for miles. [Link]
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p>THERE IS NO INDICATION OF TERRORISM:
“We haven’t heard from any of our facilities that anything’s missing.” New York City government source told CNN there are “no indications of terrorism…” [Link]The FBI has told the BBC that there is no indication that the crash is terrorism-related. [Link]
A senior Homeland Security official said there is no indication of terrorism, but rather it the incident appeared to be a “terrible accident“. [Link]
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p>But these are the sorts of events that make people scared and angry, and these are the sorts of times when people feel justified acting out their racism as a hate crime. Please be careful tonight. I know I’ll be looking over my shoulder as I get in and out of my car, especially once the news gets out. It’s times like these that I wish I lived in a large city on the coasts, and not a smallish conurbation in the midwest where I encounter enough racism even on a regular basis.
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p>UPDATE 1 :
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p>The fire seems to be largely out now:
16 engine and 9 ladder companies have responded; most of the fire has been extinguished…. A total of four people have been confirmed dead – two people from the plane, two people from the building. Additionally, the aircraft was a Cirrus 20, which supposedly has a parachute for emergencies. [Link]
Multiple shots of the building right now available from Gawker.
Update 2: Stranger than fiction – blame the Yankees?
New York Yankees manager Joe Torre says the plane that crashed into a building in Manhattan is registered to team pitcher Cory Lidle[Link]
What could be more all American than that? Maybe it will put an end to all the speculation that this is somehow terror related.
Update 3: It is Cory Lidle’s plane. While this was a tragedy where 2-4 people may have died, I feel no guilt for the relief coursing through my veins right now. This was the only way that a plane crashing into a NYC building would have been conclusively decoupled from terrorism in its reporting – it was a famous person, an athlete, a YANKEE, whose plane it was. This will change the entire framing of the event.
The 655,000 estimate comes from a Lancet study. I think we need a sepia e-journal club. Link the study: the last Lancet study was controversial and many experts disputed the results, including the official UN count was different. Let’s read the study collectively, read the methods section, read the results. And discuss away….actually, it would be a valuable experience if we did this. THere are many knowledgeable commenters, and if we took it as a serious intellectual problem, and not a partisan squabble, it would be incredibly valuable. YOu don’t think the media, Fox or CNN-types, would really do such a study justice, do you? I just don’t think it’s within the scope of journalism, even very good journalism, to do such a thing, but Saheli or Siddhartha might have different thoughts.
well, tell me then, MD, how many deaths will get your panties in a wad? 30,000? Oh wait, that’s what Bush used recently… a “comma” right? is a half-million an exclamation mark? 30k deaths (or any number, for that matter) is a number too high…
I remember way back when during lifeguard training when all the instructors would drill into our minds…the main reason people drown is because they lose their wits and panic. We act like a herd of sheep (reminds me of that Farside cartoon from nearly 20 years ago where a bunch of sheep are going off a cliff just because every other sheep is doing it…) when we panic.
No Desh – how rude you are. I didn’t say I didn’t care about Iraqi deaths. I said let’s look at the data carefully and pursue the truth. What was the point of your comment other than to accuse me of not caring about innocents? Sorry, but you have done nothing to add to this conversation, nothing to add to the truth, and nothing but ‘play’ to the choir. Clap, clap, huzzah, applause. That has taught me.
That this comment section is about polemics, gotchas, gimmes, and insults.
And in the words of ‘Fez’ of The Seventies Show: I say, Good Day!
Like Salil, I must protest converting all news into a terrorism story. It’s a bad filter, it’s why I can’t stand TV news, and it helps elect Cheneys. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got to heat up some daal chawal of freedom.
If our loved ones are around the affected area yeah we do. We watched 2 planes go thru buildings killing thousands, 2 months later another one crashed in Queens killing everyone and freaking everyone out. A few years before that one crashed in Long Island. A few years before that a plane overshot the runway at LaGuardia. Plane crashes are ugly and they scare us. Is that so difficult to comprehend that when you hear of a plane crash you think of your loved ones and want to reach out to them? WTF
We watched 2 planes go thru buildings killing thousands
When was that? I must have missed that.
[blockquote]Like Salil, I must protest converting all news into a terrorism story. It’s a bad filter, it’s why I can’t stand TV news, and it helps elect Cheneys. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got to heat up some daal chawal of freedom.[/blockquote]
But a plane crashing into a building in NY is just too deja vu – how can such powerful imagery not trigger 9/11 sentiments? It would have made Ennis look like a clumsy messenger if he hadn’t said that there was no indication of terrorism, especially considering this ia a desi blog where we often discuss 9/11 scapegoating. From THIS point on, however, now that we have something beyond imagery and speculation and we know that it’s actually some true-blue-America’s-favorite-pastime-celebrity kinda guy, I agree that we shouldn’t use the terrorism filter to discuss the story.
Agreed. Panic is never a good strategy
Light planes crash into buildings every year, even in Manhattan recently. The Empire State alone has had several planes plow into it. This is slightly more relevant than the news channels hyping ‘NO TERRORIST CONNECTION’ every time someone holds up a gumball machine at an airport, but just barely.
The aircraft is question was, as a quick search would have shown, a Cirrus SR-20. It does not supposedly have a parachute. It actually has a parachute. For the entire plane.
Weird how today was 10/11 when it happpened…
I don’t even live in New York and I can understand the panic and the instinctual grasp of terrorism as an explanation. What makes it even more ironic is that it was a Yankee who flew the plane.
It’s irresponsible for the media and for politicans to manipulate panic, but to say that ordinary people have no right to feel it seems kind of harsh for people who have literally and bravely been living under the spectre of terrorist attacks for the past five years. New Yorkers aren’t alone in their fear, they’re joined by residents of Baghdad and Kabul and Tel Aviv and too many places to count…but I don’t think denying a psychological fear/state of mind makes it go away.
Sending out calm, peaceful vibes out from a tiny little country too unimportant to even be considered for acts of terrorism…
must have been a freaky day in NYC.
I hadn’t heard of any, and I definitely hadn’t heard of any like this.
More importantly, I was sure it wasn’t terrorism, the government was sure it wasn’t terrorism, however that didn’t make me any less concerned that others would think it was terrorism, and that tensions might not rise accordingly. That was the point of the story.
No Desh:
You’re reading it wrong. I was just 1000 ft from where a plane crashed into a building. I could smell smoke in my lobby, and four people immediately died. All cell phone service ceased, landline service was intermittent, and the only calls my colleagues and I received on the landline were from worried friends and family members making sure that we were ok. Part of what made these callers panic is that they couldn’t reach us on our cells.
I wasn’t advocating that people should call everyone under the sun in a chicken little scenario, but I know what it’s like to worry about someone, regardless of how rational the justification may be. I was instead saying that if you are calling to check on someone and are having difficulty with the phonecall, don’t panic; the phones are just out.
Salil and Kurma:
I look forward to spinning the death of four people in your cities into jokes. Ha! Wouldn’t that be a hoot! Maybe include the death of a sports star, too? Ha! I bet that’d stretch my e-p33n.
The fact is that I doubt you two will ever see how tasteless and morbid that humor seemed to me, so swift as it was on the heels of somone’s death.
I try to fit ‘9-11’, ‘remember 9-11’, ‘9-11 changed everything’, ‘9-11’ into my conversations at least 50 times everyday.
I hadn’t heard of any, and I definitely hadn’t heard of any like this.
If the point was to reduce tension, I’m not sure the boldface and the highlighting and the TERRORISM in all caps helps 😉
Let’s not bias the data. 99.5% of horrible vehicular crashes are accidents.
Off for my Evening Walk of Liberty. It’s even called a Constitutional.
Small plane hits Milan skyscraper – accident
Small plane hits LA apartment building – accident
There are many more like this.
But this is what you said in #57…
I guess you must have read about it recently then. Or maybe somebody read it to you.
Manish – has there been a single plane into building crash in NYC since 9/11? I’m pretty sure there hasn’t.
It was in bold b/c most people’s reaction to the news would be to worry about terrorism, the same way it would be if you saw an exploded Bombay train. Remember, this was a fire visible across NYC …
well, tell me then, MD, how many deaths will get your panties in a wad? 30,000? Oh wait, that’s what Bush used recently… a “comma” right? is a half-million an exclamation mark? 30k deaths (or any number, for that matter) is a number too high…
Excellent point however I think PETA and it’s shenanigans are a far more interesting topic for some posters on this board. Put a nekkid woman in a cage with tiger stripes-even better.
Ennis I am just glad I don’t have to have a full cavity exam now. Whew!
I guess you must have read about it recently then. Or maybe somebody read it to you.
Dont be a spoilsport 🙂
I can’t think of a single example between 9/11 and this, and your cases didn’t apply. In fact, the only NYC example you gave was from 61 years ago.
Seems like that Tampa incident was not an accident:
Exactly! I have been living in ny for over 20 years, and the planes crashing into the towers was the first time I had heard of such a thing. My first reaction then (and I think a lot of other people’s as well) was that it must have been an accident.
You can’t blame people for feeling/thinking a certain way when they hear about something like this. We’re human beings; we panic. I don’t know where such a line of thinking comes into play :
Now, I don’t mean people should go and run amok or take to the streets. But there is fear, panic, sadness…etc because you are not sure of what’s happening.
Abhi, I only agree with you in a qualified way — sometimes, panic is entirely justified. Especially in stereo.
I have been living in ny for over 20 years, and the planes crashing into the towers was the first time I had heard of such a thing
Try reading the news 😉
has there been a single plane into building crash in NYC since 9/11?
Of course. Just two months later:
After that, there were two helicopter crashes in Manhattan’s East River.
The year before 9/11, a Concorde crashed into a hotel in Paris and a large passenger jet crashed into houses in Patna (same link).
Shall I continue?
Of all the plane crashes every year, an infinitesmally small percentage have any terrorism connection. Most are pilot error or mechanical failure.
Please tone down the hysteria.
Um… which one of these exactly is the plane crashing into a nyc building?
Yes, please.
You’re missing the point entirely. I knew it was an accident, but other people (with some reason) were likely to think it wasn’t. I wanted to warn our readers to watch their backs last night, because of the possibility of an increase in hate crimes. Luckily, I was wrong.
Acknowledging social irrationality is not the same thing as giving in, addressing it does not mean conceding to it.
None of the NY cases you gave were anywhere close, btw. The airplane crash in Queens was a plane blowing up midair, not flying directly into a tall building. Helicopters flying into the river are again a very different thing from planes flying into a building and setting it on fire. Like it or not, this event had a 9/11 resonance, and that was worth adressing.
Dear JoAT: Why so indignant ?
I must also say that the “We watched…” irked me; as if New Yorkers have a monopoly over trauma, but that,I guess, is really a marginal point. The more important thing is that the chap who wrote “…the sky is falling” was making a perfectly reasonable appeal that whether or not you’ve watched planes go through buildings, getting into a terrible panic is to give in to atavism. While people will react irrationally, one certainly does not want to defend irrationlity – and certainly not via a “I can understand how they feel” defence; right ?
which one of these exactly is the plane crashing into a nyc building?
You’re not a New Yorker, are you?
Where Queens is (hint: it’s in NYC).
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blockquote>I look forward to spinning the death of four people in your cities into jokes. Ha! Wouldn’t that be a hoot! Maybe include the death of a sports star, too? Ha! I bet that’d stretch my e-p33n.
Go for it. Wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. If anything, I’d like you for it.
Ennis (#69): there was a plane crash in Manhattan the next year, in 2002. It wasn’t “into a building,” it was into a neighborhood. And planes do crash into buildings ALL THE TIME.
And finally…sorry, folks: Abhi and Manish are right. Panic is never justified. Never. You may want to panic. You may even think you need to panic. But panic is behaving like cattle, and releasing your hold on your emotions in favor of taking a moment to step back and understand what’s happening and how to get through it. Panic is also contagious: panicky people instill panic in others, and thus spread the damage. In 34 years of watching people panic, I have yet to see anything good come from it. On a personal level I’ve seen people cheat, lie, and behave like idiots because they panicked over something that they should have reflected on properly. On a bigger stage, I’ve seen harmful legislation get passed, and presidents get elected thanks to panic.
So if you feel like panic is justified…really justified…then maybe what you really need to do is figure out how you’re contributing to the problems around you.
oops. wrote that all within the blockquote tags. Sorry! Quote should have ended after the 2nd line.
You do that by bolding “Be careful,” not THERE IS NO INDICATION OF TERRORISM.
The precise vector made little difference to the people who died in the buildings.
If you click the links, you’ll find the same 9/11 hyperventilation over the Queens crash and the choppers as over the Yankee pitcher’s light plane. And it all helps keep Dubya in power.
Salil, that link was to an incident in Italy. And the 2002 incident was a very different thing, as I wrote above. A plane fell out of the sky, it didn’t fly into a building.
I agree that most such incidents are non-terrorist related. I also think that in this case, given the precautions in NYC, and certain group’s repeated attempts to destroy tall buildings in NYC, that the resonance was there, whether we wanted it to be or not. So I addressed it up front, and then told people to be careful.
Why do people keep assuming that I was panicking?
Sure. And neither does dying in a car crash. But to us standing outside, certain things look like some things and not other things. We’re talking about a plane flying into a tall building in NYC, and it catching on fire.
I bolded “no indication of terrorism” b/c when I first blogged it, there was next to no information, and that was critical. If you read the story hours later, you wouldn’t have had the same impression.
Have you forgotten the Air India bombing? Or the plane which exploded over Long Island Sound, prompting allegations of a surface-to-air missile? Plane explosions are linked with terrorism more commonly than planes into buildings.
Your phrasing did exactly what the MSM media did with the Queens accident, and it’s irresponsible:
Small plane crashes into building: your first thought should be pilot error. Even in New York. The current phrasing is a distortion of the facts.
All caps, boldface, highlighting a full 25% of the story, using the word ‘terror’ repeatedly. But shoot, maybe it’s just me.
A small personal plane hit a building, not a commercial jet. And that happens all the time.
i’m sorry but when i say nyc, i mean manhattan … mea culpa
its funny how you i had bolded ‘houses’ and ‘queens’ in my comment to point out that it was not ‘buildings’ or ‘nyc’ but you have just emphasized ‘queens’ now,
are houses and buildings interchangeable now?
as an aside, this crash in the residential area in queens did create initial ‘panic’ (i don’t know if i should use this word since i don’t think it means the same to me as it does to others here) b/c it happened so soon after the crashes into the towers,
but despite all of this, i am sure you can come up helicopters going down into rivers or student pilots crashing in staten island to prove that when we hear about a “small plane crashing to a building in manhattan”, on the news, we should not skip a beat because that is the kind of thing that happens everyday here
so instead of such a pointless back and forth, i will simply say that ennis’ post was necessary
In Dec 2002 a small plane crashed into the Federal Reserve Building in Miami.
Which grants my point– people heard ‘plane crashes into Queens buildings’ and jumped to ‘terrorism.’ You’re smarter than that. Even a cursory look at the crash photo should have told you it was a small plane, not a jetliner.
Sure. If you own a station wagon, live in Idaho and vote Republican out of fear that your local petting zoo will be attacked by Osama bin Laden.
Mrs Nigger-Baiter: Oochy coochy. (the son smiles a little tight smile) Look at him laughing… ooh, he’s a chirpy little fellow. Isn’t he a chirpy little fellow … eh? eh? Does he talk Does he talk, eh?
Son: Of course I talk, I’m Minister for Overseas Development.
Mrs Nigger-Baiter: Ooh, he’s a clever little boy – he’s a clever little boy. (gets out a rattle) Do you like your rattle? Do you like your rattle? Look at his little eyes following it … look at his iggy piggy piggy little eyeballs eh… oo… he’s got a tubby tumotum. Oh, he’s got a tubby tum-tum.
Son: (whilst Mrs Nigger-Baiter is talking) Mother, could I have a quick cup of tea please. I have an important statement on Rhodesia to make in the Commons at six.
(Sound of an explosion out of vision. Cut to reveal Mrs Nigger-Baiter’s chair charred and smoking. Mrs Nigger-Baiter is no longer there. The upholstery is smouldering gently.)
Mrs Shazam: Oh, Mrs Nigger-Baiter’s exploded.
Son: Good thing, too.
Mrs Shazam: She was my best friend.
Son: Oh, mother, don’t be so Sentimental. Things explode every day.
I think it might be.
When Ennis’ post went up, there was little info available. We were going by the info that a plane crashed into a NYC building. Had he not mentioned the fact, very clearly, that this wasn’t terrorist related, we would have had 100 comments asking about whether it was related to terrorism. I think his point about this was needed so that people could focus on the real message behind his post – to be careful in case people out there associate this with terrorism and come after the browns.
its official, houses are now buildings
i’ve been urging ennis to have a meetup in iona so as we, conservatives, can all get together in our wagons, but you know how he is…so stubborn when he sets his mind to something; he wants it to be in a more metropolitan area like boise
If he hadn’t mentioned that it was a small plane in the very first line, perhaps. And I’m asking all 100 of you to think.
The sarcasm would fall flat in the face of the Oxford English Dictionary, but luckily you already granted the point.
I’m not saying Ennis lives in Boise, and I’m not saying he doesn’t; but you might want to ask him offline.
There are five instances of the word terrorism in a single passage in this post. That’s irresponsible. I could just watch The View if I wanted terror hype and reaction shots instead of hard news.
huh? i think you should stick to coming up with crashes in milan and paris and stuff from the 60s … i have no idea what you are talking about
That was the message behind his post? Look, I suppose it’s only natural to connote planes flying in NY buildings with terrorism, despite the supreme sang-froid that posters here would like to affect. As such the supposedly sobering statements such as
strike me as absurd,if only for stating the excruciatingly obvious.
What I do find distrubing though is the whole cautionary tone of Ennis’s post. “watch our backs?” dude, sometimes, in addition to waiting a bit for the whole story, it would help if this you weren’t so reflexive about posting your personal fears on the internet. Needless to say, this amounts to fear-mongering, despite what you say about it being akin to some public-safety announcement.
Sikhs were attacked/harassed immediately on 9/11 – you may have all the time in the world to contemplate your every move, but there are a lot of ignorant mofos out there who react immediately to any rumor. When a Sikh doctor is harassed while on the ground trying to help 9/11 victims, that goes to show that sometimes it’s good to be cautious. If the news hadn’t come out so fast about this being an accident, you better believe my husband’s commute home from the city wouldn’t have been very pleasant.