The news organizations appear certain at this point that it was Cory Lidle’s aircraft, flown by him (a pitcher for the New York Yankees) with no one else on board.

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Addendum 5:28 pm: Mayor Bloomberg now says there were two people aboard, one “flight instructor” and one “student.” He is not giving the names. Stranger and stranger.

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Addendum 8:17 pm: As someone who lives in the area, I can attest that any notion (like I’ve heard in some media outlets) that the plane should have been “shot down” before it got close to the building is absurd. The airspace over the East River always has small aircraft buzzing around, and it would only take seconds for a pilot (if he or she wanted to) to turn their plane and head for a high-rise. There is no way — even with fighters deployed 24 hours a day — that you could prevent that. Either you ban all such small aircraft, with whatever consequent losses to business and touristic interests, or you put up with the risk of such events. It is still bizarre to me that this plane hit the building so squarely in the middle. We’re not likely to know what happened until the NTSB completes its investigation, assuming that they have enough facts to go on. It is a miracle if only the two people on the plane were killed, as appears to be the case now.

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