Plain City's Meriam Stanger said her grandson — the flight instructor killed when the plane owned by New York Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle crashed into a Manhattan high-rise Wednesday — was passionate about flying, attaining his license by the time he graduated from high school.
The Weber County woman said that although the news of Tyler Stanger's death was shocking, he died doing what he loved.
"It's what he wanted to do," she said. "And everybody supported him. Of course we never thought this would happen."
Tyler Stanger, of Walnut, Calif., has many relatives in northern Utah, "more here than in California," Meriam Stanger said.
She said her grandson, 26, loved airplanes his entire life, "always looking to the sky." After receiving his pilot license at age 17, he went on to work for Howard Aviation in California for eight years as a mechanic and quit to start his own business, Stang-AIR, providing flight school and aircraft rentals. He also received a degree in aviation management from Southern Illinois University.
Stanger and Lidle died after Lidle's four-seat aircraft crashed into the 31st floor of a 40-story condominium tower on Manhattan's Upper East Side, eliciting eerie and instant memories of the 9-11 attacks of five years and one month ago. More than a dozen firefighters, police and civilians were injured.
Investigators on Thursday and workers in hard hats gathered up the scorched pieces of Lidle's shattered plane in a floor-by-floor sweep for clues to why the aircraft crashed.
Crews recovered the nose, wings, tail and instrument panel of the plane along with a hand-held GPS device as they conducted an exhaustive search of the building — inspecting even terraces and ledges, said National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman.
Hersman said the single-engine plane was cruising at 112 mph at 700 feet of altitude as it tried to make a U-turn to go south down the East River. It was last seen on radar about a quarter-mile north of the building, in the middle of the turn, at 500 feet.
"Early examination indicates that the propellers were turning" at the time of impact, Hersman said, suggesting the engine was still running.
The medical examiner's office removed the bodies of Lidle and Stanger Wednesday, but pieces of fuselage, a plane door and crushed vehicles still littered the street. Officials said aircraft parts and headsets were on the ground, and investigators discovered the pilot's log book in the wreckage. It remained unclear who was piloting the plane at the time of the crash.
Stanger and Lidle apparently planned on flying from New York to California this week, after the Yankees' defeat in the playoffs over the weekend.
"They were going to fly back together. It was right after the loss to Detroit," said Dave Conriguez, who works at the airport coffee shop in California that Stanger frequented. "Tyler's such a great flight instructor that I never gave it a second thought. It was just, 'See you in a week."'
The crash prompted renewed calls for the government to restrict the airspace around Manhattan to help ensure planes cannot get so close to the city's skyscrapers. Much of the airspace over two of the main rivers that encircle Manhattan is open to small aircraft flying under 1,100 feet.
A day after the crash, the building had a gaping hole where bricks and glass used to be, and a black scorch mark, six stories long.
Lidle, who was 34 and had a wife and 6-year-old son, had obtained his pilot's license during last year's offseason and viewed flying as an escape from the stress of professional baseball and a way to see the world in a different light.
The New York Times reported in September that Lidle, who also lived in California, met Tyler Stanger through a mutual friend and began flight school when his season ended with the Phillies last year. The newspaper reported that Lidle met with Stanger twice a week, for three or four hours at a time, all winter long.
Tyler Stanger told news media in September that Lidle "was probably my best student." He mentioned that the two had been through several simulated emergency situations, required to be taught by flight instructors for safety reasons.
Lidle had probably logged nearly 100 solo hours in the air.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires 40 hours to receive a license, as well as passing scores on written and flying tests.
Hersman said that as of September, there were 545 SR20s registered in the United States. Since 2001, the NTSB has investigated 18 accidents involving the plane; those crashes resulted in 14 deaths.
Tyler Stanger leaves behind his young daughter and his wife, Stephanie, who is expecting their second child.
"It's a terrible thing to go through," Miriam Stanger said.
E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com