OFF TOPIC - NY Crash

There is a VFR corridor through the class B airspace that people frequently take on sightseeing flights. You can fly into class B after being given permission to do so by ATC.

As for the cause, if it was a fuel related accident it could have been due to something like a fuel pump failure, or the PIC could have failed to do a proper preflight check.

I imagine trying to maneuver a fast moving Cirrus through an area with high buildings could be quite challenging, akin to maneuvering in a box canyon.
 
This happened a block from my office. When we heard the crash we thought a garbage truck had rammed a parked car (there's a sanitation depot at the end of 73rd St). My assistant said, "That didn't sound good." I looked out the window and saw people looking up in the air rather than down the block. "This is something much worse." We were outside seconds later and watched the building burn. There was a huge puff of black smoke rising from 72nd St at first, which must have been the rest of the plane burning on the ground.

The building that was struck contains offices for our hospital on the lower floors. I immediately called everyone I could think of to make sure they were safe. Nobody from our hospital was injured, thankfully. There are employees and patients down on 72nd St every single day. The falling debris could have easily killed someone.

Ran back up to my office to grab my still camera. Snapped some photos and sent them off to a buddy at the AP. No sale, but it was a good exercise in photographic journalism.

Was planning on leaving work at 3:30 to pick up a couple reshoots on my short film so I left at 3pm instead. I knew nobody was going to get any work done the rest of the day with a plane crash on the next block. Downpour started as soon as we got to our exterior location so the reshoot got rained out. As we waited under cover the calls started coming in from friends and family to make sure I was okay. Only then did I find out it was Corey Lidle on the plane. As an avid baseball fan I immediately remembered Arthur Rhodes criticizing Lidle for only being interested in flying and gambling after he was traded from the Phillies to the Yankees.

Have tried not to pay too much attention to the subsequent press coverage, because the image of that burning building is engrained in my memory, and the press has made getting to work difficult with all their vans and set-ups on every corner for a 3 block radius.
 
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