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. On October 11 of last year, a Cirrus plane carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Water main break at Terminal 4 at JFK Airport, structural damage at a building on Broadway and Dey in Manhattan and a missing child at Fieldston Rd & Mosholu Ave in the Bronx The Williamsburgh Savings Bank gets naked. Even though Citigroup said its third quarter earnings would drop 60% and UBS fired its CFO and laid off 1500, Wall Street rallied to a record Dow close of 14,087.55.......

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......

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......

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......

With NYC's three major airports near full capacity and flight delays rising due to overcrowded runways and increased security regulations, Mayor Bloomberg is concerned that the city's lack of speedy entrance and egress by travellers to and from the city will start to stifle economic growth. Of the many proposals put before him, the mayor is apparently putting his weight behind one that would turn the city's waterways into runways by allowing seaplanes to land......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: "crack in wall of building" in Williamsburg, three alarm fire on West 65th, and an overturned truck on Park Avenue. Just what the meatpacking district needs: dirty bingo. "A Queens man is suing his ex-girlfriend for $1 million, claiming she just used him to get pregnant before running off with a man who was better endowed." Like that's never happened to you! Is Matzoh made in a converted schoolbus......

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." The Daily News reports that......

The National Transportation Safety Board released information about the October plane crash into an Upper East Side Building. It turns out that before the crash, the Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, had only spent four hours flying his new plane, a Cirrus SR20. He had only 12.5 hours of actual flight time in that model, and a total of 88 hours flying time (48 hours as a "pilot in command"). Lidle's flight instructor Tyler Stanger......

Here is part two of our semi-chronological look back at the top stories this past year (here is part one): Queens Blackout The Blackout of 2003, as irritating as it was, happened to the whole city, could be blamed on other states and didn't last too long. When parts of Queens lost power in July, Con Ed wrote it off as an isolated event affecting only a few thousands customers. But as Queens spent days......

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......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a suspicious package at Columbus Circle, a person struck by subway at 34th Street, and an "armed EDP" on 9th Avenue. In the last two years, there have been nearly 600 car accidents along the ten block stretch of Atlantic Avenue from the river to Flatbush. Have you visited Mihow's New York Post Project? She captures a real cross-section of NYC residents. Bloomberg is claiming that after his current......

The National Transportation Safety Board released an update to its investigation into the October 11 plane crash carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger. It appears that the turn the plane was trying to make was too tight, and the wind may also have caused an issue when the plane crashed into the East 72nd Street apartment building. From the NTSB: Radar data indicate that the airplane was flying over......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: another scaffold collapse, a fatal fire in the Bronx, and an animal rescue uptown. Will Smith's Legend has been driving Washington Square Park area residents insane: "I haven't slept for three weeks." The NTSB is saying that wind was responsible for the Cory Lidle plane crash. The NYPD wants to install video surveillance at all 344 city housing projects to deter crime. The ACLU wants privacy safeguards. Busta Rhymes......

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......

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,......

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.......

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......

Yesterday afternoon, a single engine plane crashed into a residential building at 524 East 72nd Street. Debris from the plane and building fell as floors of the building caught fire; firefighters responded to what became a four-alarm fire and streets closed for emergency response. Although there were initial fears that it might be terorrism related, it turned out to be a tragic accident - and the plane's passengers were Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle and......

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. It was August 2, 1979, when Thurman Munson died while piloting his......

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. Update: Dan Dickinson says it smells like smoke three blocks away and that traffic is screwed. Update: NY1 is reporting that 3-4......

-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......

-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. -Yankees 8......

-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. -Baltimore 9 Yankees 4: Cory Lidle didn’t have it from the start, giving up a two-run homer in the first and getting......

-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. -Orioles 3 Yankees......

- 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. While the Mets may have lost against the......

-Yankees 4 Tampa Bay 2: The Yankees played and won Sunday, but that was really a sideshow to their off-field activity. New York landed Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle in a trade with the Phillies, solidifying their lineup and rotation and giving them the firepower they will need to last in a race with Boston, Chicago and Minnesota for a playoff spot. With Abreu in the fold, the Yankees will now turn their attention......