The two men who died in a small plane crash in Westchester on Thursday were trying to make an emergency landing at the county’s airport in the moments before the fatal accident, officials said.
Cleveland residents Boruch Taub and Benjamin Chafetz were traveling from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Cuyahoga County Airport in Richmond Heights, Ohio, when their single-engine Beechcraft A36 began to experience “low oil pressure,” Westchester County Executive George Latimer said at a news briefing on Friday.
Federal Aviation Administration controllers advised Taub, who was piloting the plane, to make an emergency landing at Westchester County Airport, Latimer said. As the plane neared the airport, however, it began to lose altitude.
What You Need To Know
- Cleveland residents Boruch Taub and Benjamin Chafetz died in a small plane crash in Westchester County on Thursday, officials said
- The two were traveling from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Cuyahoga County Airport in Richmond Heights, Ohio, when their single-engine Beechcraft A36 began to experience “low oil pressure,” Westchester Couty Executive George Latimer said
- Taub tried to pilot the plane to Westchester County Airport to make an emergency landing, but the aircraft lost altitude and crashed approximately two miles away, Latimer said
- Taub and Chafetz were both members of Cleveland’s Orthodox Jewish community, according to Latimer
“The pilot recognized that he had only a handful of minutes to try to bring the plane to a safe landing,” Latimer said. “He was unable to do that.”
The small plane crashed approximately two miles from the runway around 5:30 p.m., in a wooded area along Rye Lake, the county executive said.
Emergency personnel only located the wreckage around 10:55 p.m., following a “very difficult search” complicated by inclement weather and dense forest, he said. The FBI helped pinpoint the plane’s location using cell phone data, he added.
“Last night, the weather was just horrific,” New York City Department of Environmental Protection Chief of Department Frank Milazzo said at the briefing. “At one point, the thunder and lightning that was going on while those emergency responders were out in the field, it was treacherous, and they all did an admirable job.”
Latimer said Taub and Chafetz were both members of Cleveland’s Orthodox Jewish community.
“Because of that, there are special traditions, religious traditions, that have to be honored in dealing with fatalities,” he said. Their bodies were “released for return for proper burial in Ohio with the family and community involved,” he noted.
Chafetz spoke with his wife in the minutes before the plane went down, the county executive said.
“I don’t think any of us want to contemplate what it would be like to know that your life was about to end, and you were going to speak to the people that you loved the most, and try to say something to them to summarize the life that you’ve had together,” he said.
As part of its ongoing investigation, the FAA arrived at the scene of the crash Friday morning, Milazzo said. The National Transportation Safety Board was expected to arrive later in the day, he added.
“What the investigation will determine is what happened inside the plane that caused the plane to lose its ability to remain airborne for that last mile and a half, two miles,” Latimer said.
The crash, the county executive said, served as a reminder that “our lives are not always in our control.”
“Mr. Taub, Mr. Chafetz are gone. They leave a hole at the dinner tables in their homes. They leave a hole in the life of their communities, communities of faith,” he said. “And losing them, that is the overarching story of today.”
