Landing gear from a 9/11 plane was found in lower Manhattan. Wreckage from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center is something one doesn't expect to still be finding-but landing gear from a plane involved in the attacks was found wedged between buildings by someone on a roof in lower Manhattan.

The 9/11 plane's landing gear, found this week in Manhattan a few blocks from the World Trade Center, has a clearly visible Boeing Co. identification number and is about 3 feet wide and 1.5 feet deep. The landing gear is a jumble of twisted metal, cables, and levers that has clearly been through a lot.

"The odds of this being wedged between there is amazing," said Paul Browne, a spokesman for the New York Police Department, in a statement on Friday; Browne added that the wreckage "had to have fallen just the right way to make it into that space"-thus, the fact that the landing gear went undiscovered is unsurprising.

Browne added that other wreckage from the World Trade Center attacks has been discovered nearby in past years.

On Wednesday, surveyors inspecting the lower Manhattan site of a planned Islamic community center found the equipment. The inspector was on the roof of 51 Park Place, where the Islamic community center and mosque is slated to be, and discovered the landing gear from the plane. He immediately called 911.

Sharif El-Gamal, the president of the property management company that owns the building, said in a statement that the company will cooperate with the city and police to make sure the plane's landing gear "is removed with care as quickly and effectively as possible".

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and police detectives

will determine which plane the equipment is from-it may have been from the American Airlines plane or from the United Airlines plane. Both were involved in the attack on the World Trade Center's Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.  Police said that, in addition, the medical examiner's office would decide whether or not the soil around the buildings should be sifted for human remains.

Ironically, the site of the planned Islamic community center and mosque where the landing gear was found was the target of virulent furor several years ago. When plans for the so-called "Ground Zero mosque" were first announced, protests erupted from some who felt having a Muslim facility near the Twin Towers was disrespectful to the memory of those killed in the attacks. Supporters pointed out the importance of interfaith dialogue and freedom of religion; the fact that, while the planned Islamic community center was not exclusively a mosque, the site and sites around it including the World Trade Center itself had previously been used for Islamic services; and the notion that that arguments against the building were based on the idea that Islam, rather than Islamic radicals, is responsible for the events on 9/11.

The Park51 space is a five-story, weathered Italianate building that was previously a Burlington Coat Factory.  The piece of plane discovered was wedged between that building and 50 Murray St., a luxury loft rental building.