October 11, just before 3 p.m., residents of the Upper East Side were stunned as a plane crashed into a building at 524 East 72nd St. The aircraft was small, as was the explosion, but the initial panic felt by New Yorkers was overwhelming. OEM Watch Command and responders picked up the incident over the FDNY radio and immediately dispatched a team to the site.

The aircraft crashed between the 39th and 42nd floors of a residential apartment building. Smoke billowed from a gaping hole in the face of the building as OEM staff and other first responders arrived. They evacuated residents from fire-affected floors and advised all other residents to shelter in place to avoid injuries from falling debris. Meanwhile, the OEM command bus arrived and established an interagency command post.

This emergency turned out to be a tragic accident involving a young pitcher for the Yankees and not the terrorist attack New Yorkers initially feared. OEM, indifferent to the back story, coordinated a massive response force from the Fire Department, the Police Departments, the Department of Buildings (DOB), the medical examiner’s office, Consolidated Edison, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Aviation Association, the Mayor’s Community Assistance Unit, and the American Red Cross in Greater New York using the same emergency protocol it applies to all fires, explosions, and partial building collapses it encounters. 

First, the Police Department secured the area. Then, DOB determined the integrity of the building and the affected apartments. In this instance, special consideration was needed to disarm an explosive parachute device on-board the plane. The National Transportation Board, supported by technical staff from NYPD conducted a crime scene investigation to determine the reason for the accident. Over the next two days responders invited displaced residents back into the building in all but the directly affected apartments, where coordinated efforts with NTSB were underway to remove the plane’s wreckage.

“All any of us knew at first was that a plane hit a building,” said OEM responder Fred Reich. He cites “lots of agency training,” as the secret to the success of this response. Erik Grosof of the National Transportation Safety Board, the lead investigative agency on this response, remarked, “The response to this job was perfect.  OEM gave us all of the support and space we needed to do our job.” He explained, “This is our first time working with OEM since American 587 crashed in 2001. All of us learned a lot from that experience. This time we knew the capabilities of each agency and their expectations of us.”    

Detective Hastings coordinated the latter half of the response effort for OEM. While supporting NTSB with its investigation, he brought the neighborhood back to working order by ensuring that the sidewalk in front of the building was clear, covered, and protected from the construction work above and utilities were restored to the surrounding area.