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]

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]

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.

UPDATE 1 :

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.

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There are two types of ABDs – those who live the daily, 9-to-5 grind, and those who live … on the edge. The punk ones, the ones who scandalize the aunties. Well, I’m sure that aunties across America have been doing some tutting about the actions of Jabeen Akhtar, who joins Ravi Chand in the audacious desi animal rights activist hall of fame. [Thanks DJ Drrrty Poonjabi]

Jabeen is an animal rights activist with PETA who “painted tiger stripes on her nearly nude body and sat in a cage in downtown Charlotte, N.C.” to protest the way that circuses treat the wild animals in their acts:

In a letter … Akhtar explained she “appeared caged, nude, and painted like a tiger in downtown Charlotte, N.C., to draw attention to the way animals suffer in circuses like the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

“Although it was uncomfortable to sit on the pavement exposed to the public, the hour I spent sitting on the sidewalk was nothing compared to what the animals go through every day of their short, miserable lives,” she said. [Link]

PETA alleges the circus commits numerous violations against the Animal Welfare Act, backing up the claim with case documentation and hidden video footage. Among the grievances: inhumane storage of animals, torture with electric rods and bull hooks, neglect leading to suffering and death, intentional killing of animals afflicted with illnesses. [Link]

I admire Akhtar. Not only did she take a peaceful yet eye-catching stand for what she believed in, she’s also an employee of the EPA. Now that takes chutzpah. Continue reading →

Via BoingBoing comes news of a guy who was detained and missed his flight for “acting suspiciously” by speaking a mixture Tamil and English on his cell at Seattle’s cosmopolitan SeaTac airport:He told officials that he would not speak in a foreign language on his cell phone at an airport in the future

A 32-year-old man speaking Tamil and some English about a sporting rivalry was questioned at Sea-Tac Airport and missed his flight Saturday because at least one person thought he was suspicious.

The Port of Seattle dispatched its police officers to investigate the case, which occurred Saturday around noon, said Bob Parker, airport spokesman. The Chicago man was preparing to board an American Airlines flight to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

The man was speaking Tamil, a language largely used in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore, on his cell phone at the departure gate and on the aircraft. An off-duty airline employee heard the conversation and informed the flight crew. [Link]

The whole thing was cleared up once he promised to become monolingual at airports!

Parker said the man was cooperative and boarded a later flight to Texas. He told officials that he would not speak in a foreign language on his cell phone at an airport in the future. [Link]

This is hardly the first time this something of this sort has happened. A man was detained for several hours for speaking Arabic on the phone at a bus station. Two britasians were kept off a flight for speaking Urdu (although there is some evidence that they may have been trying to provoke an incident). A flight was even diverted because passengers felt threatened by two orthodox jews praying in Hebrew! There are many more cases like this involving Sikhs immediately after 9/11, I’m just showcasing some non-Sikh examples so that the rest of you can relate.

You don’t even have to open your mouth to have an incident. This Lt. Colonel in the US Army (formerly active service, now reserves) was detained for hours because US Air Marshals didn’t like the “way he looked” [He won a court case based on this incident]

So yeah, even 5 years after 9/11, I still only speak on my cell phone in English at airports, I always call or text somebody to tell them where I am in my journey, and I make extra sure to grin broadly and shuffle my feet while boarding. Nossah massah, I only speaks the english! You gots watermellon on this heah flight? I just love me some watahmellons!

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