Major League Baseball player Cory Lidle was killed when he flew his Cirrus SR20 into a building alongside the East River in New York. The accident shows the consequences of failure to do preflight planning and poor aeronautical decision making.

Todd Curtis, Greg Feith, and John Goglia discuss the circumstances around the October 11, 2006 crash. The aircraft was on a VFR flight beneath the Class B airspace around Manhattan Island. Lidle and his passenger, who was a certificated instructor pilot, were unable to negotiate a turn over the East River, and were killed after striking a building.

They talk about the need for flight planning to deal with the challenging circumstances presented by wind, tall buildings and restricted air space. Calling the conditions challenging but not impossible, they focus on many options to avoid the fatal crash.

This NTSB report on this accident is full of detail. Investigators, along with the Flight Safety Detectives, were left puzzled by why the pilot did not take advantage of options available to avoid the crash.

Related documents:

• NTSB Accident Brief: Lidle_SR20_2006_brief.pdf

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