Cory Lidle's plane crashes in NYC

It was not raining when the accident occurred. The sky was overcast but clear.

 

yup.

also, in cases of an accidental death, isn't the payoff doubled? ??? ??? ???

 

Please don't attack me for this.

I hope he had really really good life insurance, because that salary just isn't as good as it looks.

Pay the agent, pay the taxes, pay the pension fund, put some into long term investments because you still have a couple of years left in your career and you won't need the money yet, etc. Then live a lifestyle based on ongoing future income. It disappears in a hurry.

Anyone can live on 1/10th of that money, of course....just saying, for a mother in her early 30s, who will likely never make that kind of money on her own, his earnings probably would not allow her to live in her current lifestyle indefinitely.

 

Who had the aeronautical engineering degree? Can't a plane like that slip sideways when banking for a turn if there's a problem with the engine?

 

A lot of good coverage on this today, by ESPN and others.
That said, I had a question..... I was in a sports bar last night, and ESPN was live with continuous coverage all through the evening, right through the 11 o'clock SportsCenter.
Would it have been that way if, say, Tomo Okha or Eric Milton had crashed his plane into a building in, say, St. Louis?
Or is a Yankee pitcher crashing his plane into a building in post 9/11 Manhattan kind of the perfect media storm?
Again, I think it's terrible what happened to Lidle, who seemed to be a genuinely nice guy. And I feel for his wife and kid who had to find out when their plane landed in California. RIP, Cory.
But I was just curious what others thought.

 

I'm with you on this.

 

Honestly, anyone who believes a person can be handed $1 million and live an affluent lifestyle the rest of their life without finding a way to make more money ... well, $1 million will go away quicker than anyone believes.

 

Money really isn't important right now. Lidle's wife and son have more pressing issues at this moment -- they've both lost the most important person in their lives.

 

I think it's a perfect media storm. Hell, even Hollywood types were affected by it...

 

Plus, if any of Lidle's contract was deferred, then there's still money coming in. I certainly feel for Lidle's wife and son, but not because I think they'll have money problems.

 

Between Lidle's millions and the deep pockets of the plane manufacturer, each trying to pin the blame on the other as the apartment residents sue, it'll be interesting to see what comes out.

I have a pilot friend; here's what he says about that airspace Lidle was in:


"...... Every time I look up from somewhere in Manhattan, especially along both rivers, I shudder. I see all that little traffic, which has one tiny slice
of airspace they are allowed to occupy, and they are all crammed into that
one place. And on weekends half the people in that space are not qualified
to be flying anywhere near other airplanes, let alone over Manhattan, and
it's just scary.

Imagine it as a layer cake, and the bottom layer, which begins just
above the highest building, and is only about 1,000-1,500 feet thick, is the
only place reserved for General Aviation (which in this case includes
everything from sight-seeing and news helicopters, to your kid's
orthodontist making his twice-monthly flight in the pricey Beech Baron you
bought him, to those Cessna floatplane taxis that land on the East River
where E. 34th St. ends).

And immediately above all that mess, you have the layer that's only -- I
should say ONLY -- reserved for big jets full of real people on final to
Newark, JFK, and LGA, so when those GA planes stray above their layer of the
cake, hilarity ensues, and in decades past, some of the most spectacular
midairs in history have occurred over the five boroughs. But not lately, so
we're probably overdue......"

 

First, let me say that obviously no one deserves to die at 34 and in the manner in which Cory Lidle died.

One thing that came to mind to me though - and it was sparked by the "he seemed like a geniunely nice guy comment." Everything I've heard about the guy is he wasn't that nice of a guy. Yes, he was a good quote because he pretty much said whatever came to the top of his head. But from what I've been told, he wasn't a guy liked in the clubhouse; he was arrogant; he had girlfriends in every city and flaunted it; he on more than one occasion came to the ballpark drunk. I was told in SF, he had a cabbie pull over on the Golden Gate so he could puke. Right before gametime.

Anyway, I feel for the wife and child, of course. But all these fawning articles and comments over Lidle just has my cynical side scratching its head.