Two people were injured Sunday evening when their small plane crashed on Long Island. Ida Siegal reports.
Two people were injured Sunday evening when their small plane crashed on a residential street in a Long Island community.
The single-engine aircraft, a Piper 28, went down at about 7 p.m. in Bayport in Suffolk County shortly after taking off from a nearby airport, authorities said.
The pilot, 34-year-old Scott Clifford, was hospitalized in serious condition with two leg fractures and a head injury, said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini.
A passenger, Michael Rome, 65, was also injured, but there was no information available about the extent of his injury.
The plane clipped a tree and a utility pole and crashed at the quiet intersection of Second Street and Third Avenue, Islip Supervisor Angie Carpenter told news reporters.
The plane experienced engine failure and was attempting to return to the Bayport Aerodrome, she said.
"I was looking out my window and it stalled. He turned around to come back in and he went down. He hit the first pole, twisted around, landed and went on fire," witness James Gallo said.
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Approximately 250 houses and businesses briefly lost electric power after the crash.
"This is nothing short of a miracle — both that the airplane did not hit any houses or any other individuals," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini said.
The National Transportation Safety Board will determine the cause of the crash.
It is the third such plane crash in Long Island in as many months.
Early last month, a small plane parachute-landed in front of a building in Hauppauge.
And in February, a small plane carrying four people crash-landed in the Long Island Sound.
