Apartment Owner Sues Estate Of Yankees Pitcher Lidle Over Plane's Crash Into High-Rise

Friday, May 11th 2007, 6:12 pm

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ An apartment owner sued the estate of New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, claiming the player's plane destroyed his home and caused him emotional injuries when it crashed into a high-rise building, killing Lidle and another man.

The lawsuit filed Thursday by architect Stephane Sparta says he was at home Oct. 11 when the airplane crashed into the 30th floor of the luxury building on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The wreckage ``exploded'' into his 31st-floor living room, setting the contents on fire, the lawsuit says. Sparta has moved to another apartment in the building, his lawyer said.

``It didn't strike him but it gave him quite a shock,'' lawyer David C. Cook said. ``It came as close to giving him a haircut as you can get.''

Lidle and flight instructor Tyler Stanger had taken a midday flight past the Statue of Liberty and north up the East River but apparently had trouble as they tried to turn south.

The National Transportation Safety Board reached no final conclusions about the cause of the crash, nor whether Lidle or Stanger was piloting the plane at the time.

The lawsuit is the third filed by building residents against the Lidle estate. It asks for unspecified money damages and names Lidle's wife, Melanie, as the defendant in her capacity as estate administrator.

A lawyer for Melanie Lidle, Robert N. Clarke Jr., did not immediately return a call for comment. In March, Clarke said wrongful-death lawsuits for Lidle and the flight instructor were filed against Cirrus Design Corp., maker of the airplane, alleging product liability, negligence and other complaints.