The East 72nd Street building that a single-engine plane crashed into almost a year ago is "almost whole" again. The NY Times visited the Bel Aire at 524 East 72nd Street and found the facade patched up and cleaned, windows replaced and interior hallways with new wallpaper and carpeting. And once the scaffolding is removed, the building's canopy can be replaced. more ›

Central Park at night, by deenas at flickr more ›

Ilana Benhuri filed court papers in early August suing Melanie Lidle and Stephanie Stanger (the widow of Lidle's flight instructor Tyler Stanger, who was also killed in the crash) for unspecified damages related to the 2006 crash that killed Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor when the small airplane they were piloting flew into the side of a building on Manhattan's Upper East Side. 51-year-old Benhuri was badly burned during the incident, as the Cirrus aircraft crashed into the 30th floor at 524 E 72nd Sreet. Benhuri described the incident after she was released from the hospital, saying that the walls and windows "came just right into me and it threw me up in the air and threw me down in all the debris..." She also said that she was lucky to be alive. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on 3rd St. and Broadway in Manhattan, a shooting on 57th St. and Ave. H in Brooklyn, and one more dead body in the water near Brooklyn and the Hudson River.
• Staten Island Hospital worker poisoned on the job.
• The land that would have hosted a NASCAR track on Staten Island will be sold soon because the organization and city are too slow.
• A recorded timeless piece of NYC turns only 45 this year. The Emerald Society bagpipe band celebrates an anniversary.
• It's not only city kids with murder in their hearts, upstate kids are crazy too.
• Parsons is teaching a graffiti class, and if you think this is the last you'll hear about it here, you are sadly mistaken.
• There are more complaints from parents over hosting a new bi-lingual Arabic school in Brooklyn.
• Lawyers release Peter Braunstein's "manifesto," hoping it will make him seem less, or more, crazy. We've lost track of what they're trying to do at this point.
• The architect of the building that Cory Lidle or his flight instructor slammed into is suing from the stretch.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued its final report on the Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle's Cirrus plane crash into an Upper East Side building. From the NTSB: "The probable cause of a small airplane crash in Manhattan last October was the pilots' inadequate planning, judgment, and airmanship in the performance of a 180-degree turn maneuver inside of a limited turning space." The NTSB found no problems with the plane itself, and suggested that the plane could have made the turn, if they had aggressively banked the plane during the turn or made an illegal turn over buildings. more ›

Officials from the city's Economic Development Corporation met in March with representatives from Tigerfish Aviation, an Australia-based seaplane manufacturer, to discuss how commercial seaplane service could work in the metropolitan region, and what kinds of planes could be employed. more ›

And today is the last day to apply for Gothamist's Weekend Editor gig-- "Responsibilities include writing 10 posts per day on Saturday and Sunday and organizing the flow of contributions from other writers. The pay is competitive with blog-writing gigs for other NYC media companies. Requirements: real blogging experience, a serious appetite for NYC-related content, and a genuine love for the city. This job can be done from anywhere within the five boroughs, but you may be called downtown to meet with us once or twice a month. If you're interested, email Jake (at) Gothamist-- no attachments please-- just a short paragraph about you and a few links to relevant work on the web." more ›

Almost five months after Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle's private plane crashed into an Upper East Side apartment building, a couple is suing Lidle's widow and estate for $7 million. Larry Rosenthal, a dentist, and his wife, whose apartment was damaged, claim that Lidle was "reckless, careless and negligent." The Rosenthals' lawyer said, "If you're not an experienced pilot, you don't belong on the East River with skyscrapers on either side." more ›

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Here is part two of our semi-chronological look back at the top stories this past year (here is part one): more ›

The woman who was badly burned after the plane carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and flight instructor Tyler Stanger crashed into her 30th floor apartment finally left the hospital yesterday. Ilane Benhuri, who had the most serious burns among the people injured from the crash, had walked to New York Hospital with the help of her housekeeper immediately after the October 11 crash. She underwent operations and many skin grafts over the past month. After her release, Benhuri spoke to reporters yesterday about her ordeal:

Everything from outside, the windows and the walls and everything, with a big explosion, came just right into me and it threw me up in the air and threw me down in all the debris... more ›

Let's Celebrate, by Pixietart. more ›

Radar data indicate that the airplane was flying over the east side of Roosevelt Island prior to initiating a 180 degree turn. At this location, there would have been a maximum of 2100 feet clearance from buildings, if the full width of the river had been used. However, from the airplane's mid-river position over Roosevelt Island, the available turning width was only 1700 feet. The prevailing wind from the east would have caused the airplane to drift 400 feet toward the building during the turn, reducing the available turning width to about 1300 feet. At an airspeed of 97 knots, this turn would have required a constant bank angle of 53 degrees and a loading of 1.7 Gs on the airplane. If the initial portion of the turn was not this aggressive, a sufficiently greater bank angle would have been needed as the turn progressed, which would have placed the airplane dangerously close to an aerodynamic stall.

broadway-nassau by joe holmes. more ›

Senator Charles Schumer is all over the city's skies. Regulating them, that is. In the wake of the Upper East Side plane crash, Senator Schumer is asking for the FAA to make more changes. His ideas? Make a "Trusted Flyer" program which would require pilots to register their planes and submit to background checks before flying in local airspace. Schumer said, "It's a little bit like E-ZPass, in a certain sense." Uh, yeah. He added, "The problem here is that the FAA is focusing on accidents - that's very important - but they neglect terrorism altogether." more ›

After temporarily restricting airspace over the East River just after a small plane crashed into an East 72nd Street Building - and the restrictions were lifted shortly after the situation was under control - the Federal Aviation Admistration has decided to exlude all fixed wing aircraft from the East River corridor, excluding helicopters and seaplans. Airplane pilots must now get permission from air traffic control. Various politicians, from Governor Pataki to Senators Schumer and Clinton, asked for the FAA to restrict airspace, while Mayor Bloomberg thought that as long as the FAA thought the rules worked, so be it. The Mayor's office now says, “The mayor said he believes this decision should be left to the experts at the F.A.A., and he appreciates that they have acted swiftly." more ›

From today's Page Six in the Post comes a cartoon from Sean Delonas. Perhaps it's a tad early to be making fun of the Cory Lidle crash, no? We suppose Delonas and the Post do get credit for timeliness though. more ›

Investigators have spent the hours after a plane, carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger, crashed into an Upper East Side building gathering evidence from the street. Federal transportation investigators believe that the single engine Cirrus SR 20 was trying to make a U-turn when it turned left over the East River, based on something either Lidle or Stanger told an official at Teterboro Airport. According to radar, the plane had flown over the East River at an altitude of 700 feet and was at 500 feet a quarter mile north of 524 East 72nd Street. more ›

Housekeeper Eveline Reategue was tidying her boss' 30th-floor apartment when a sudden explosion nearly knocked her off her feet. more ›

The Yankees have had a glorious history, but it has not been one free of tragedy. From Gehrig and Hunter to Mantle and Munson, disease and accident have taken many of the teams’ legends before their time. Cory Lidle was only a member of the team for two months, but his sudden and tragic death Wednesday fit into an all-too familiar history. more ›

A helicopter has crashed into a building on East 72nd. It was thought to be a small plane, but now reports say it is a helicopter. The helicopter seems to have crashed into 524 East 72nd Street, a residential apartment building. CNN is saying there are no reports of terrorism or hijacking. more ›

-Yankees 5 Orioles 4: It’s a weeklong audition for those Yankees who haven’t cemented a place on the playoff roster, so Cory Lidle’s six strong innings were certainly timely. So was another scoreless inning from Brian Bruney and a 1-4 night from Gary Sheffield. Yes, Gary Sheffield has not guaranteed himself a spot on the playoff roster and it is doubtful he will unless he starts to hit again. Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano both went 2-4 to close the gap in their batting race with Joe Mauer. more ›

-Mets 7 Florida 4 (11 innings): Hernandez/Mota/Heilman/Wagner, New York has plenty of bullpen firepower late in the game. While that can keep them in the game, their offense can win it. Carlos Delgado singled in the tying run and the Mets took the lead on a passed ball to cut their magic number to 2. If New Yrok wins tomorrow and Philadelphia loses, the Mets clinch their first playoff bearth since 2000. more ›

-Dodgers 5 Mets 0: Hong-Chih Kuo was impressive in his first major league start, surrendering only three hits over six shutout innings. LA got all the runs they would need in the first off of an error by David Wright. The loss and the Phillies win keeps the Mets’ magic number at 7. more ›

-Phillies 3 Mets 0: For the first time since they went to Philadelphia, the Mets got a good pitching performance. Tom Glavine pitched well, surrendering only three runs over seven innings, but Jon Lieber was better. Lieber held the Mets to only five hits and did not allow a runner past second base as he pitched his first shutout in five years. New York will try and avoid being swept tomorrow afternoon. more ›

- Marlins 4, Mets 1: Pedro Martinez was strong in his 2nd start since coming off the disabled list, but the Mets offense was unable to offer him much run support off of Dontrelle Willis and the Marlins. Pedro pitched six innings and only allowed four hits and one run. The Marlins ended a 1-1 tie in the 8th inning with Miguel Cabrera's bases clearing triple. more ›

The question is, will they make a move before the trading deadline? This seems to be the year, so giving up youth for a proven pitcher would be prudent, but the ghosts of the Kazmir trade still haunt the franchise and may keep Omar from improving his club. more ›