NEW YORK (CNN) -- A small airplane crashed into a 50-story residential building on Manhattan's East Side on Wednesday, killing at least two people, the New York City Fire Department and New York City Police Department said.
Flames were shooting out from several windows midway up the luxury high-rise in a residential neighborhood. Paramedics and rescue workers are treating people on the ground.
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. (Watch the orange flames ravage the apartment -- 1:50)
The plane hit the Belaire Condominiums at 524 E. 72nd Street near the East River. More than 150 firefighters are on scene of a four-alarm fire in the building.
NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) said it had put fighter aircraft into the air over numerous U.S. cities, though they said they had no reason to believe the event in New York was anything more than an accident, sources told CNN's Barbara Starr. NORAD did the same thing after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
NORAD fighters scrambled in response, according to NORAD Admiral Timothy Keating, though the White House has told CNN that they have no indication that the crash is related to terrorism. Keating would not say how many NORAD jets are up but that they are airborne as a precaution. If the crash was indeed terrorism and there was a continuing threat then NORAD is charged with shooting down any aircrafts.
"We've been in contact with our intelligence partners, coalition partners around the world," Keating told CNN. "And there are no, repeat, no indication that there is anything underfoot beyond this one airplane or helicopter."
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."
"We haven't heard from any of our facilities that anything's missing," said Coleman.
New York City government source told CNN there are "no indications of terrorism."
The FAA placed a one-mile flight restriction around the site of the crash, but New York area airports were not affected.
A senior U.S. official in Washington said the administration was waiting for more information.
Witness Henry Neimark, who is also a pilot, said he saw a plane flying at relatively low altitude which seemed to come from LaGuardia International Airport.
"It looked to me in retrospect that this was a pilot desperately trying to get back to the airport and land safely on a runway," he said.
"The fire was raging out of two windows," witness Sarah Steiner told CNN. "It looks like the plane just flew into someone's living room."
Steiner said fires were burning on the ground. "It looks like the plane just flew into someone's living room there."
"It looks as if the aircraft didn't go into the building but fell down," she said. "It may be part of the debris burning on the ground."
Video from the scene shows at least three apartments in the high-rise engulfed in flames.
A law enforcement official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lidle was on the plane. And Federal Aviation Administration records showed the single-engine plane was registered to the athlete. A passport belonging to Lidle, an avid pilot who got his flying license after last year's offseason, was reportedly found on the street below the crash site.
The law enforcement official said the plane had issued a distress call before the crash. The official said it was unknown whether Lidle was at the controls.
Earlier reports had cited four bodies found; the city???s medical examiner???s office later confirmed only two people had died.
The FBI and the Homeland Security Department said there was no evidence it was a terrorist attack. ???The initial indication is that there is a terrible accident,??? Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said. Nevertheless, fighter jets were sent aloft over U.S. cities as a precaution, the Pentagon said.
The plane came through a hazy, cloudy sky and hit the 20th floor of The Belaire ??? a red-brick tower overlooking the East River, about five miles from the World Trade Center ??? with a loud bang, touching off a raging fire that cast a pillar of black smoke over the city and sent flames shooting from four windows on two adjoining floors.
"This is a terrible and shocking tragedy that has stunned the entire Yankees organization. I offer my deepest condolences and prayers to his wife Melanie, and son Christopher, on their enormous loss," Steinbrenner said in a statement on Thursday.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference Wednesday that the plane left from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey at 2:20 p.m. The airport is 12 miles from midtown Manhattan.
Bloomberg said the city???s response to the accident was ???massive and quick and coordinated.???
Firefighters shot streams of water at the flames from the floors below and put the blaze out in less than an hour.
Large crowds gathered in the street in the largely wealthy New York neighborhood, with many people in tears and some trying to reach loved ones by cell phone.
???I was worried the building would explode, so I got out of there fast,??? said Lori Claymont, who fled an adjoining building in sweatpants.
Young May Cha, a 23-year-old Cornell University medical student, said she was walking back from the grocery store down 72nd Street when she saw an object out of the corner of her eye.
???I just saw something come across the sky and crash into that building,??? she said. Cha said there appeared to be smoke coming from behind the aircraft, and ???it looked like it was flying erratically for the short time that I saw it.???
???The explosion was very small. I was not threatened for my life,??? she added.
Lidle had repeatedly assured reporters in recent months that flying was safe and that the Yankees ??? who lost catcher Thurman Munson in the 1979 crash of a plane he was piloting ??? had no reason to worry.
???The flying???? Lidle told The Philadelphia Inquirer this summer. ???I???m not worried about it. I???m safe up there. I feel very comfortable with my abilities flying an airplane.???
Richard Drutman, a professional photographer who lives on the 11th floor, said he was talking on the telephone when he felt the building shake.
???There was a huge explosion. I looked out my window, and saw what appeared to be pieces of wings, on fire, falling from the sky,??? Drutman said. He and his girlfriend quickly evacuated the building.