By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 3, 2006 4:42 PM

The wind prevented a small airplane carrying New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle from successfully making a U-turn on the East River last month, and the plane smashed instead into a Manhattan high rise, federal investigators said Friday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the plane carrying Lidle and flight instructor Tyler Stanger was trying to turn around from the middle of the river when the wind forced the aircraft into the 50-story luxury Belaire apartment building on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Lidle, 34, and Stanger, 26, were both killed in the Oct. 11 crash. The report did not say who was piloting the single-engine Cirrus Sr20 at the time. One person was severely injured on the ground and two people suffered minor injuries, the report said.

The NTSB report said the plane had only 1,300 feet to make the 180-degree turn because the wind blew it over toward the building. To make a successful turn, the aircraft would have had to bank so steeply that it could have stalled, the report said.

If the pilot had used the full width of the river to turn, he would have had 2,100 feet to turn around. The pilot was flying closer to the middle of the river, the report said, leaving a much smaller margin of error.

"The airplane impacted the 30th floor of the apartment building, bounced off, then fell to the street below, where it came to rest inverted and was engulfed in a severe post crash fire," the NTSB said. "The engine was ejected from the airplane and entered the building through an apartment window on the 30th floor."

The NTSB found no problem with the aircraft, which was owned by the Yankees relief pitcher. They also found no evidence of a fire or other damage while the airplane was still flying.

Two days after the mid-afternoon crash, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered small, fixed-wing planes not to fly over the East River unless the pilot is in contact with air traffic controllers. Small planes such as the one carrying Lidle could previously fly below 1,100 feet along the river without filing flight plans or checking in with air traffic control.

No flight plan was filed for Lidle's flight, which originated at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

The report outlined factual information about the crash, but said additional work remains to be done in the investigation.

Lidle had only recently obtained his flying license and Stanger, his instructor and friend, had flown mostly in California.