Aircraft Hits Manhattan Building; Two Dead

Just got back from lunch when I saw an email from John Stephenson mentioning this. At first glance, it doesn’t sound like terrorism–why would they hit an appartment on 72nd Street instead of say, the Empire State Building, or any one of a dozen or so higher profile targets in Manhattan?

The address listed in this report, 524 E. 72nd, is close to Roosevelt Island, which is too wooded to land in. And nearby FDR drive is waaay too busy to try to land on. But my wife, who grew up in Manhattan, says that 72nd street is wide enough, in theory, to land a small plane on, and thus the collision with an appartment could have been simply a pilot attempting to make an emergency landing, and missing his mark.

But that’s all pure speculation at this point.