Flying Objects

150 Flying Objects

Identified and semi-unidentified flying objects just can’t seem to satay away fom Kathleen Caronna.

Who?

Kathleen Caronna, the woman hit by the “Cat In The Hat” balloon during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1997.

First, the “Cat,” now Cirrus SR20. What’s that? It’s the airplane that smacked into her bedroom the other day, killing owner Cory Lidle, the Yankees pitcher, among others.

No, she wasn’t home at 20 to 3 that afternoon. But ordinarily she would have been, and that day, she was heading there right about when the plane hit. Good timing. But it does make you wonder.

First a renegade balloon, now a badly flown private plane.

Someone should drop a light-weight and inconsequential object on her pretty soon, to get past the “things happen in threes” scare.

At least do it before the autumn of 2015. Since the first two incidents were spaced nine years apart, Kathleen has about nine years before there’s a potential third incident. Get it over with.

This woman was in a coma for a month after the balloon thing. This time, she’s conscious, of course. But she’ll probably be pretty rattled for the same one month.

The New York papers and television and radio stations are reporting that Caronna visited her bedroom after the fire was extinguished. But there aren’t a lot of quotes from her floating around… nor her husband nor her son.

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All of a sudden, this Lidle fella’s become a hero. And famous. What about the other guy in the plane? You don’t see his name much. It was Tyler Stranger. He’s dead, too. Don’t bother Googling him. You won’t find much. Here’s a quote, though: “the most dangerous thing about flying is driving to the airport.” The source of that is not exactly reliable. It’s from “Vivablog,” whatever that is. It gives no source and no context. But it sounds like the authentic thought of a Single Engine Cowboy. Even if it was made up (which it might have been.)

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The whole thing sent a collective shiver through New York. We’ve developed a kind of aversion to planes hitting buildings, even insignificant planes hitting insignificant buildings. Our famously thick hide is not yet thick enough to shrug this off as we do power failures, transit mini strikes, traffic jams, high prices and each other.

I'm Wes Richards, my opinions are my own, but you're welcome to them.

(c) 2006 WJR