ON THE mound, Cory Lidle lived on the edge. Off the field, he was the same way.

Tributes have been pouring in for New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle as investigators attempt to find out why the plane in which he was travelling crashed into a Manhattan building last night, killing two people.

A small plane slammed into a 40-storey apartment building in New York, killing two people in a crash that rained flaming debris onto the pavements and briefly raised fears of another terrorist attack.

A single-engine plane crashed into a high-rise building on New York’s Upper East Side high-rise today, killing four people, raining debris on the sidewalks below and rattling New Yorkers’ nerves exactly one month after the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attack.