Stay calm, people. It appears that today's plane incident on the Upper East Side was not terrorism, as many people feared (including my mother, who has called me twice in the past two hours), but rather, an accident. The small Cirrus SR-20 (in case you're counting) that flew into the Belaire Condominium on East 72nd Street was flown by none other than Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle, whose passport was just found on a New York street. What a bizarre fucking story. Only in New York.
Here's an eerily prophetic comment that Lidle gave to a newspaper only a month ago:
Fly guy
The Phillies weren't enamored of pitcher Cory Lidle's hobby of flying a four-seat airplane.
But now that Lidle is with the Yankees, it's an especially sensitive topic.
In 1979, Yankees catcher Thurman Munson died when a plane he was piloting crashed near his home in Canton, Ohio. Lidle earned his pilot's license last offseason, and has insisted his plane is safe.
"The whole plane has a parachute on it," he told The New York Times. "Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the 1 percent that do usually land.
"But, if you're up in the air and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly."
-- Delaware News Journal, September 10, 2006
Hmmmmm. Guess he was wrong.
2 comments:
Bloggy,
Tasteless. Had a higher opinion of you. Where is the compassion dude?
A
Bloggy,
I guess it's a good thing that I don't write for anyone but myself then, isn't it?
As far as compassion goes, most of mine is reserved for people who suffer from circumstances that are beyond their control, like cancer patients, Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, drug babies, refugees, victims of random violence, earthquake and tsunami victims, and people who are dying from, or living with, disease, hunger, and poverty every single day. There is very little compassion left in my tank for wealthy, famous, privileged white men who are accidentally killed engaging in risky, aristocratic hobbies that 99.9% of the world will never have the means or inclination to pursue, such as flying small airplanes or filming dangerous animals on television.
With this background, let me answer your question by providing you with the following list of people involved in yesterday's accident, for whom I feel compassion, in order of importance:
1. The owners of the apartments Cory Lidle flew into and anyone inside the building who was injured.
2. Anyone on the street who may have been hurt by falling debris from the plane.
3. Any firefighter, police officer, or bystander who may have suffered any injury putting out the fire or assisting people.
4. Flight instructor Tyler Stanger, who was a passenger in the plane.
5. Cory Lidle's wife and kids.
6. The inhabitants of New York City, who were temporarily frightened into thinking this was another terrorist attack.
That pretty much covers it.
And for the record, I think my "Crikey!" and "Wasted Opportunity" entries were far more tasteless than this one. But if this one's your favorite, to each her own.
Post a Comment