[新聞] 'DADDY WAS A GREAT PILOT'

[yyhong68 (come every now and then)]

HEARTBREAKING WORDS OF YANK PITCHER LIDLE'S 6-YEAR-OLD SON:
 'WAS THERE A FAULT WITH HIS AIRPLANE? DADDY WAS A GREAT PILOT'
By JENNY WATSON in Glendora, Calif., and JEANE MacINTOSH and DAN

October 13, 2006 --

"Was there a fault with Daddy's plane? Because I know he was an excellent
pilot."

That's the heartbreaking question 6-year-old Christopher Lidle asked his
grandma yesterday after she told him that his Yankee pitcher dad,
Cory, had died.

"He's being a strong little boy for his mother," said tearful grandmother
Mary Varela, whose daughter, Melanie, is Christopher's mom. "He's very
like his father, so he's being strong."

"He's praying and hugging Melanie," Varela told The Post in an exclusive
interview at the Lidle home in Glendora, Calif., where relatives, neighbors
and friends gathered yesterday to offer condolences, prayers and food.

"He is only 6, but he has grown up a lot in the past 12 hours."

Cory Lidle's small plane slammed into an Upper East Side high-rise
Wednesday, instantly killing him and his 26-year-old flight instructor,
Tyler Stanger.

They were taking a sightseeing jaunt around the Big Apple before their
planned flight west to their homes in California.

It was Varela who first told her daughter about Lidle's death. On Wednesday,
at about the same time the journeyman pitcher's plane crashed, Melanie and
Christopher Lidle, as well as Stanger's pregnant wife, Stephanie, were
boarding a commercial flight from JFK to Los Angeles.

Because they were airborne at the time, Melanie and Stephanie were
unaware of the fiery crash into the building at 524 E. 72nd St. and
their husbands' deaths.

"I went to meet my daughter . . . she didn't know what happened until
she landed," said Varela, who escorted her daughter into an area
terminal away from Stephanie and Christopher.

"I broke the news to her when she got off the plane, which was just
terrible," said Varela. "She [Melanie] could not have expected such a
blow. It was a real shock to her system - she just kept shaking."

Robin Howard, a family friend of the Stangers, said Stephanie was
struggling to cope with the loss of her husband. The couple met
when she was just 19 and he was 21, after he had spent two years on
a religious mission for the Mormon church.

"She's having a tough time," said Howard, who was Tyler Stanger's first
flight instructor.

Last night, silence fell over Shea Stadium before the opening pitch of
Game 1 of the NLCS between the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals in
a tribute to Lidle, Stanger and Negro League legend Buck O'Neil, who died
last week.

A similar tribute played out a day earlier in Oakland, where the A's took
on the Detroit Tigers.

Melanie's sister, Brandie Peters, said the memorial in Oakland "really
comforted" her sister in the hours after Lidle's death.

Varela said that she and other relatives are finding it difficult
accepting what happened to Lidle, 34 - and trying to explain the
tragedy to his young son.

"He had so much energy, and everything he did he did with that big,
warm smile he had. It is hard to think he will never come back," she said.

"I want to thank everyone for their kind words and condolences. Cory is
the famous one, of course, but I want everyone to remember that there is
another family out there who have lost a loved one, and our thoughts and
prayers are also with [Stanger's] wife and family."

Lidle's father, Douglas, told The Post yesterday, "I think everybody
who knew him would say he was a special person.

"I know I won't be able to see him, until I meet with him again."

Cory's twin brother, Kevin Lidle, told The Ledger newspaper of
Lakeland, Fla., that his sibling was "the best brother you could have."

"He loved his kid for sure," Kevin said. "He spent a lot of time
throwing balls to Christopher."

Cory Lidle had just 75 hours of flying time under his belt Wednesday
when he and Stanger took off at 2:29 p.m. in the pitcher's four-seat plane,
a single-engine Cirrus SR20, from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport and headed
south, over the Hudson River.

It is not clear who was piloting the plane because there were controls
in front of each man's seat.

The plane looped around the Statue of Liberty before heading north up
the East River, where it disappeared from radar. Witnesses said the
plane careened out of control before crashing into the 40th floor of
the upscale Belaire condo at 79th Street and York Avenue.

NTSB investigators said the plane's built-in parachute, designed to
deploy in emergencies, was still tightly packed.

The scenario sent shivers down the spine of veteran pilot Ilan Reich, 51,
who escaped certain death in his Cirrus plane last year, thanks to the
parachute.

Reich said he "was 20 seconds from death" when he found himself in a
nosedive 900 feet above the Hudson River near Haverstraw.

"I empathize with [Lidle and Stanger] because of what I went through
when I lost control," said Reich, 51.

Authorities are still probing the cause of Lidle's crash. CBS News
reported that investigators do not know whether the plane was
overloaded at the time. Small planes like Lidle's can carry a
maximum of 19,000 pounds at takeoff.

Yesterday, more details emerged about the days leading up to
Lidle's death.

On Saturday, he pitched in the Yankees' season-ending loss to Detroit.

Lidle was roasted on Monday by callers in to WFAN radio, because of
remarks he made about the Yankees being "unprepared" for the Tigers,
and the pitcher phoned in to the station's "Mike and the Mad Dog" show
to defend himself.

Later that day, he and Stanger dropped by the Amsterdam Billiards Parlor
on the Upper West Side, where the pitcher was well known for practicing
pool. Lidle was picking up his Viking pool cue - which he stored at the
club - and was using it until he got delivery of a new $10,000 Tad cue.

"He was a natural at pool," said Tony Robles, a nationally ranked player
who had been teaching Lidle in recent months at the parlor. "We get a
lot of celebrities and athletes in here, and he was by far better than
any of them. He was passionate about it . . . He'd talked more than
once about how he wanted to open a pool hall when he retired."

Robles also said Lidle introduced Stanger as an "awesome" flight
instructor.

Amsterdam Billiards owner Greg Hunt said the pitcher frequently
offered to take him flying.

Two weeks ago, "He was telling me about the plane, and you could just tell
he was so happy with it, with flying," Hunt said.

Lidle spent Tuesday night in Manhattan with Melanie and Christopher,
taking them to see the Broadway musical "Beauty and the Beast" and to
dinner in Times Square.

Middletown Times Herald Record sportswriter Michael Geffner called
Lidle on the phone while the pitcher and his family were dining.
During their chat, Lidle reiterated his belief that the Yankees
had "just got outplayed, plain and simple" - but also spoke about
how he loved playing for the Bronx Bombers and hoped to return to
the team next season, Geffner said.

Additional reporting by Doug Shields, Douglas Montero, Cynthia R. Fagen
and David K. Li

[e-mail]


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◆ From: 140.109.23.211
※ 編輯: yyhong68        來自: 140.109.23.211       (10/13 17:36)
推 kyo06:光看標題我就有點讀不下去了.......
推 kasparov:唉...
推 godchildtw:這時候還有別版的人開死者玩笑,唉...
推 holymars:6歲就...T_T...  飛行教練也才26歲 好年輕..
→ ithinkurdumb:what can we say? he thinks he can do everything
→ ithinkurdumb:just because he's got a glowing penis.
推 bpdq:這時候還有別版的人開死者玩笑,唉...
推 Quasars:這樣的"人"要當醫師...  fxck...
推 fizeau:Ironchef是台大醫科生？ 好強
推 awesomecheng:"學"好不代表"品"好...人外有人天外有天...
推 fizeau:果然有條件讓他很屌