New York: A well known baseball player was killed after the small aircraft he was piloting crashed into a building in Manhattan.
Cory Lidle - a pitcher with the New York Yankees - died along with a flying instructor when his four seat plane hit a 52 storey building in the upmarket Upper East Side.
Smoke and flames poured from the building and more than 100 firefighters were sent to the scene.
At least 21 people, the majority of them firefighters and police officers, were also injured as a result of the crash.
Luis Gonzales, who was working in the building, said: "I was looking out the window and I saw the plane coming so close to us and it swerved to try and avoid the building but it hit the building."
A New York police spokesman said the crash was being investigated as an accident and there was nothing to suggest that suicide may have been the motive.
New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, said: "This is a terrible and shocking tragedy that has stunned the entire Yankees organization.
"I offer my deep condolences and prayers to his wife Melanie and son Christopher on their enormous loss."
Lidle was born in Hollywood, California and began his career with the New York Mets in 1997.
He was traded to the Yankees this summer from the Philadelphia Phillies.
The New York Times reported last month that the 34 year old earned his pilot's license in the past year and bought the four-seat Cirrus SR 20 plane for $187,000.
He also spoke in the interview about how fans should not worry that he would die in a plane crash.
"The whole plane has a parachute on it," Lidle said "Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the one percent that do usually land it.
"But if you're up in the air and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly."
