Enlarge By Keith Bedford, Reuters Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi said the aircraft struck the 20th floor of this Manhattan apartment building on East 72nd St.  MANHATTAN HIGH-RISE HIT

There was no immediate confirmation Lidle was among the dead, and earlier reports indicated four had died. A law enforcement official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that Lidle was on the plane. And Federal Aviation Administration records showed the single-engine plane was registered to the athlete.

An instructor and a student pilot were on the plane when it struck the tower at 524 E. 72nd St., New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "The metal parts are basically in the street. The engine was on one of the floors," he said.

"The initial indication is that there is a terrible accident," Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said, and Bloomberg said there was "nothing to suggest that anything remotely like terrorism was involved in this." Nevertheless, fighter jets were scrambled over U.S. cities as a precaution, the Pentagon said.

ON DEADLINE: Latest developments | SPORTS SCOPE: More on Lidle

The crash at the Belaire overlooking the East River struck fear in a city devastated by the attacks of Sept. 11 five years ago. Sirens echoed across the neighborhood as emergency workers and ambulances rushed in with stretchers. Broken glass and debris were strewn around the neighborhood.

"The building shook. Boom. And then that was it. It was like something hitting something really hard," said Patty Charles, a housekeeper in a condominium on the 32nd floor of the building on East 72nd Street, about five miles from the World Trade Center site. Charles said she believed the plane struck the building on a floor above her.

VIDEO: Aircraft hits building

Gerardo Ramirez, 21, an x-ray technician at the nearby Hospital for Special Surgery, said he was at the corner of York Avenue and 72nd Street when he heard the explosion. "I looked up and there was fire raging from the windows and debris falling all over the street," he said.

Ramirez said he saw security guards run out from inside the building, then look up at the fireball above. "They didn't know what to do," he said.

Bob Longman, 66, who lives in a building half a block away on East 72nd Street, said he heard the explosion. "It sounded like a truck engine braking, and there was a sudden pop," he said.

He went to his window and saw the fire. "I thought it was on the ground," he said. He then looked up and realized an aircraft had struck the building and that flaming debris had rained down the outside of the building.

A pillar of black smoke rose over the city, and burning debris fell as firefighters shot water streams of water at the flames from the floors below.

Emergency crews arrived at the scene within minutes of the explosion and the blaze was extinguished in less than an hour. The emergency response "was just so fast — it was breathtaking," said Marcia Longman, 61, Bob Longman's wife.

"It's like 9/11 all over again. People are crying and hugging each other," said Michelle Generoso of Brooklyn, who was in the condominum when the explosion occurred.

Rain started pouring at the scene at around 4 p.m., and people gazed up at the smoke and fire as they covered their heads with plastic bags.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was too early to determine what type of aircraft was involved, or what might have caused the crash in the middle of a hazy, overcast October afternoon.

The plane left New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, just across the Hudson River from the city, at 2:30 p.m., about 15 minutes before the crash, according to officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport. But they said they did not where the aircraft was headed.

FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said the plane was apparently not in contact with air traffic controllers; pilots flying small planes by sight are not required to be in contact.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to investigate.

On Sunday, the day after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs, Lidle cleaned out his locker at Yankee Stadium and talked about his interest in flying.

He explained to reporters the process of getting a pilot's license, and said he intended to fly back to California in several days and planned to make a few stops. Lidle disccused the plane crash of John F. Kennedy Jr. and how he had read the accident report on the National Transportation Safety Board website.

Lidle, acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30, told The New York Times last month that his four-seat Cirrus SR20 plane was safe.

"The whole plane has a parachute on it," Lidle said. "Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the 1% that do usually land it. But if you're up in the air and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly."

The tower was built in the late 1980s and is situated near Sotheby's auction house. It has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million. Among its occupants are author Carol Higgins Clark, who told WCBS television she was not in the building when the explosion occurred.

Several lower floors of the building are occupied by doctors and administrative offices, as well as guest facilities for family members of patients at the Hospital for Special Surgery, hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Fisher said. No patients were in the high-rise building and operations at the hospital a block away weren't affected, Fisher said. The Hospital for Special Surgery specializes in orthopedic operations.

Roads near the condominium were closed; York Avenue was jammed with emergency vehicles. Smoke could be smelled in the air nearby and news helicopters circled the scene this afternoon.

Contributing: The Associated Press; Rick Hampson, Kevin McCoy and Martha T. Moore in New York; Randy Lilleston in McLean, Va.

Posted 10/11/2006 2:57 PM ET
Updated 10/11/2006 5:33 PM ET	E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this