Briefly resurrecting memories of Sept. 11, 2001, a small private plane piloted by New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle crashed into a residential tower on Manhattan's Upper East Side at 2:42 p.m. yesterday.
The crash killed Lidle and his flight instructor and injured 14 firefighters and four people in the building.
Stephanie Tung '07, whose family owns an apartment in the building, heard about the crash when she got a phone call from a friend.
"One of my friends called me and just said, 'Look at the news,' " Tung recalled last night. "Then I saw what had happened."
The plane hit a 50-story condominium building known as the Belaire at 524 E. 72nd Street, scattering debris and igniting a fire that spread to several apartments. The building is just east of York Avenue, a block away from FDR Drive and the East River, which the plane had been flying over.
Tung, whose family also has a house in the New York suburb of Chappaqua, uses the apartment on weekends and holidays.
"It's like a second home," she said. "Not where we live all the time."
She lived in the two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment last summer while completing medical research in New York and may live there again after graduation next spring.
The four-seat private propeller plane hit the 30th floor on the north side of the building, facing 72nd Street.
The Tungs' apartment is on the 44th floor on the south side, overlooking 71st Street with a partial view of the East River.
Tung said she had not yet spoken to her parents but did send them an email after reading articles and watching news stories about the accident. "I know they're OK, so I'm not worried," she said.
But, Tung added, the crash gave her a bit of perspective. "It's just shocking to realize how randomly bad things can happen," she said.
"Any day a plane can crash into your building and injure and kill people."
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