Small aircraft crashes into Manhattan building: CNN
Accident or terrorist attack not known at this time…
Clearly, the Pubs did this to get Foley and Hastert off the front page. 
Norad sends fighter planes over major US cities.
Very freaky - my best friend lived right next door to that building for a few years. The writer George Plimpton lived right there, too…
Too bizarre…it’s the 11th as well.
Even bizarre-er:
In this article on Yahoo there is an interesting contradiction.
It reports that the plane was, “… flying north over the East River, along the usual flight corridor…”
And later it mentions a former NTSB official as saying he couldn’t believe a plane could get that close to a building in NYC after 9/11.
Oh, please.
First of all, lots of planes and helos fly VFR around Manhattan, which means they are not under air traffic control. As they said in the article, that’s normal. And of course there is a lot of IFR (regulated and controlled) traffic out of the several airports in the area.
In short, the airspace in and around Manhattan is lousy with aircraft. This is common knowledge.
But even if a former director of the NTSB didn’t know that, exactly what measures we have taken since 9/11 could have prevented an accident like this? Or for that matter, a deliberate action of the same kind? There’s no cockpit door to lock in an 4-seat Cirrus. Shit happens, folks.
And while I don’t know the facts yet, I’m betting this turns out to be a classic VFR-into-IMC accident. Meaning, he probably got into weather he wasn’t prepared for. Not surprising - fairly new pilot in a fairly sophisticated aircraft. Happens with some regularity, unfortunately.
Are there any suggestions of suicide? Or was the pilot just inept?
The weather in NYC today was pretty crappy for flying. I don’t think it had started to rain just yet, but there were plenty low level clouds about and visibility was probably poor.
I’ve heard reports that the plane was ‘doing stunts’ so maybe the guy had lost control, then over corrected.