By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN FEDERAL COURT — An attorney for the widow of deceased Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle said his fatal plane crash into an Upper East Side building was due to "jammed" controls — not a piloting mistake — according to reports from a civil trial that opened Wednesday.
Although the Federal Aviation Administration concluded that a plane malfunction was not the cause of the crash into an East 72nd Street condo that killed Lidle and a passenger on Oct. 11, 2006, lawyers for Melanie Lidle are still arguing that the plane itself was faulty.
"The plane could have made the turn, but the flight controls were jammed," attorney Todd Macaluso said in opening statements at the Manhattan federal court civil trial on Wednesday, according to the New York Post.
The widow has sued the plane's manufacturer, Cirrus Design Corp., for $50 million on the basis that the 34-year-old Lidle would have earned that much in his baseball career.
Lawyers for Cirrus have reportedly argued that Lidle's piloting was actually the cause of the crash, a contention Lidle lawyers have contested.
"If you can't control the airplane, you can't be at fault," Macaluso reportedly said.
Earlier this week a federal judge ruled that Lidle's former teammates, including Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Jason Giambi, will not be permitted to testify at the civil trial.
