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T EThe plane was outfitted with a parachute, not the pilots. If plane is out of control you can eject parachute which will land plane safely. In such circumstances plane is total loss, at least according to expert I saw on Oberman show. Lidel had just laid out near 200K for this baby, which could have led to a momentary pause before taking action. Since distress signal went out almost as plane was crashing, it is a moment they did not have...
It is bizarre that plane turned west over Manhattan. If he is flying north over East River and plane was in trouble, you would stay over the river and keep heading north then veer east to hit LaGuardia or that other airfield up there. Why turn in over Manhattan when you have the river beneath you? Unless they made the turn first and then something dramatic went wrong.