The single-engined Cirrus SR20 carrying Cory Lidle, the New York Yankees pitcher, and his flight instructor, smashed into the 54-storey block as it apparently attempted a U-turn at the top of a narrow and congested corridor of airspace, killing both men and burning one woman in the building.

The accident brought panic to a city still traumatised by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when two hijacked airliners brought down the World Trade Centre. Residents and politicians complained yesterday that the existing rules, which allow small aircraft to fly right next to Manhattan without any clearance from air traffic control, left the city vulnerable to terror attacks.

Lidle’s aircraft hit the Belaire apartment building on East 72nd Street only moments after it flew past the UN headquarters building on the East River, 30 blocks to the south.

“Low-flying aircraft and high-rise buildings do not mix. This is a significant gap in our security system,” Carolyn Maloney, the local Congresswoman, said.

Alexa Liguori, who fled the neighbouring building with her dog, said that she was shocked that private aircraft could still fly so close to buildings in New York. “It’s just horrifying that things like that are still happening,” she said.

The Federal Aviation Administration tightened flight rules in the area temporarily, requiring all pilots to contact controllers. George Pataki, the New York Governor, called for the change to be made permanent.

“You go to Washington, the airspace is enormously restricted. You can’t fly a private plane near the Capitol or near the White House or over Washington, DC,” Governor Pataki said. “The FAA and the homeland security [department] have to take a hard look at the rules they follow in allowing aircraft into the airspace over New York City.”

Lidle’s private aircraft took off on Wednesday from Teterboro airport in New Jersey and circled the Statue of Liberty before flying along the flight corridor that runs up the edge of eastern Manhattan over the East River.

FAA rules allow private pilots operating under “visual flight rules” beneath 1,100ft to fly up the East River up to 96th Street without reporting to controllers. The corridor is full of sightseeing flights, traffic helicopters and seaplanes that land on the East River. Once private aircraft want to go north of 96th Street they enter the “exclusion zone” around LaGuardia airport and require permission from air traffic control.

Lidle’s aircraft had reached the northern end of the unrestricted air space, where northbound pilots often attempt a notoriously tricky U-turn to head back south.

A National Transportation Safety Board team travelled to New York to study the crash — something that is rare in such cases. Some experts suggested that the overcast weather and an easterly 14mph (23km/h) wind could have made the U-turn more difficult.

Multimillionaire sports stars such as Lidle are targeted by sellers of private aircraft. The Yankees spring training clubhouse in Florida was piled high with folders touting small jets. The visitors’ clubhouse at the rival Mets team has adverts for private aircraft above the lockers and printed on to the cushions of the players’ seats.

Lidle bought his four-year-old Cirrus SR20 secondhand for $187,000 (£100,000) in July. He qualified for his pilot’s licence in February and had only about 75 hours of solo flight experience. The aircraft has become popular with amateur pilots because it comes equipped with a parachute, aimed at preventing the aircraft getting into the kind of “death spiral” that killed John F. Kennedy Jr off Martha’s Vineyard in 1999.

Lidle insisted repeatedly that flying was safe and even took reporters up in the air with him. “Riding a motorcycle without a helmet is a lot more dangerous than being a low-time private pilot,” he told The Philadelphia Inquirer in June.

The pitcher was apparently intending to fly cross-country to meet his wife, Melanie, and six-year-old son, Christopher, who travelled on Wednesday to their home in California on a commercial flight. He had planned to make his first stop in Nashville, Tennessee, and had a hotel reservation for Wednesday night.

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