“A single-engine plane crashed into an Upper East Side high-rise Wednesday, killing four people, raining debris on the sidewalks below and rattling New Yorkers' nerves exactly one month after the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Meanwhile, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press that a member of the New York Yankees organization was aboard the plane that crashed into a Manhattan highrise. And FAA records show the plane was registered to pitcher Cory Lidle.”
And here’s something rather unsettling: “Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs New York area airports said he had ‘no idea where [the plane] came from.’" Also: “The Federal Aviation Administration described the plane as a ‘general aviation’ fixed-wing aircraft flying under visual flight rules, meaning a pilot was flying by visual landmarks.”
Perhaps someone who knows something about aviation can clear this up for me, but what does that mean in terms of having to submit (or not submit) flight plans, and particularly whether any authorities would thusly be aware of this plane going off-course or falling below altitude? Basically, I’d like to know if there is still some giant loophole in our aviation system that would have allowed this to happen if it had been deliberate?
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