New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was one of two dead after a plane he was aboard crashed into a 50-story apartment building in Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Wednesday.
The other fatality has not been named because his next of kin has not been notified. Lidle, who joined the Yankees on July 30 as part of a trade with the Philadelphia Phillies, had acquired his pilot’s license within the past year and had accumulated approximately 75 hours in the cockpit. Team owner George Steinbrenner released a statement Wednesday.
“This is a terrible and shocking tragedy that has stunned the entire Yankees organization,” he said.
The crash, which sent a large fireball into The incident marks the second time in the team’s history that it has lost a player under similar circumstances.
In 1979, catcher Thurman Munson was killed when a plane he was piloting crashed into the runway while trying to land. Lidle’s death adds more turmoil to an organization still trying to cope with an early exit from the playoffs for the third year in a row. Just four days earlier, the Yankees had been eliminated from the postseason by the Detroit Tigers.