Actually, it's the pinkish coloured building closer to the river on the same side of the street. The NYC GIS has it correctly.

yeah it's the pink one, the Belaire tower http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&client=firefox-a&q=belaire&near=New+York,+NY&cid=0,0,15966798542178511669&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=19&ll=40.7655,-73.95196&spn=0.000863,0.001829&t=h&iwloc=A

Act of terrorisim or not it is unfortunate that people have suffered due to the crash

I heard it was a pitcher for the Yankees...Sad

It is not an act of terrorism, however it has been confirmed that NY Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was the pilot of the plane and has died in the crash.

Was nothing learnt from 9/11? Why was this plane allowed to fly this close to Manhattan? Then again, 2 school shootings a week and still nobody wants to discuss gun control. Leaders of the free world....hmmm...worrying

Here's a link to a google earth pic that accurately shows the building... http://nerdtownusa.blogspot.com/2006/10/google-earth-fools-terrorists.html

Some of you people commenting are idiots. "Was nothing learnt from 9/11? Why was this plane allowed to fly this close to Manhattan?..." Isn't the airport near Manhattan? Is air travel supposed to be stopped. If it was a legitimate flight, why should there have been a restriction. The pilot had a problem..it's called an accident. And you bring up the school shootings? What has that to do with this? Liberalism is a mental disorder!!

looks bad i hope he has insurance that on the fly

Much has been learned from 9/11. The problem is that the general public chooses to remain generally ignorant which is why someone feels the need to make comments like this. This was a tragic accident, but it was just that, an accident. While it has yet to be made fact, it was believed that a certificated flight instructor was on board. There was purportedly a distress call made from the plane before the accident. If that is true I can pretty well bet you that there was a failure of some sort and that flying that close to buildings was a result of that failure as the flight instructor wanting to keep their license would not have allowed any pilot to fly that close to any building. The Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR 91.119(b)) specifically states that they should have been at least 1000 feet above any obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft. Forget about the rules for a second and consider this, anyone paying attention during their ground school would know that the winds around buildings, especially in a congested city like NY, are going to be unfriendly to an aircraft and any reasonable pilot is going to stay away from tall buildings because of that alone. I am aware that many are instant wannabe experts, but there is a reason that the NTSB takes months, and sometimes years to annouce a cause of an aircraft accident and common sense tells this pilot (me) that something was wrong aboard that aircraft, and it was more than the "nut behind the wheel" which was the case with JFK Jr's accident. In closing, rules would not have stopped the 9/11 terrorists nor did a No Parking sign stop Timothy McVeigh. Dying in an aircraft is still tremendously less likely than dying in an automobile and I would much sooner stand under a plane piloted by a licensed pilot than in front of a car driven by a licensed driver any minute of any day because I know that the FACT of the matter is that flying is far safer transportation than driving is.

Well said, Mike.

Very well said Mike.....it was an unfortunate accident