Planes crashes into condominium building on Upper East Side, Manhattan...

[Sam Spade]

Live thread...  Happened about 30-45 minutes ago.

Unknown cause and they're not sure right now whether it was a small plane or a helicopter.

[Joe Republic]

Looks like nothing too major, luckily:

[adam]

MSNBC said that it has been determined that it's a fixed wing plane. They say that the plane was in serious trouble.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Yeah - i've been looking at CNN - looks like 2/3 apartments damaged... so whatever it was was pretty small.

[adam]

Update: According to a witness, the plane was in flames before it hit the building. Also, the plane hit the north side of the tower...meaning it was heading away from LaGuardia.

[Sam Spade]

That building is pretty close to the East River.  If the plane had an engine problem, it would make sense that he was trying to get back to the East River and crash into the water.

[Joe Biden 2020]

Luckily, the Homeland Security Department is not too concerned about this being a terrorist attack, though the White House is not ruling anything out or in.  Fighter aircraft have been positioned above many cities in the country as a precautionary measure.

When I heard the plane hit, I heard a collective "holding-of-the-breath" gulp around the country considering we are 5 years after 9/11 and we have Congressional Elections in 3 weeks and 5 days.

[adam]

Update: It's was a Cirrus 20 capable of seating 4 people. They are talking about it being a potential suicide.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Whoa, a little too similar to 9/11.
Although this seems to have more in common with the 1945 crash of a plane into the Empire State building.

[Sam Spade]

It appears like the plane was piloted by Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle.