hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Video: Pilot pleads for help before landing on NY highway
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Video: Pilot pleads for help before landing on NY highway
New York - "Mayday, we’re losing engine power,” said Michael Schwartz, shortly before he made an emergency landing Saturday on a busy New York City highway, according to an air traffic control recording released Sunday.
Schwartz ,50, of South Salem, who was listed as a student pilot as of April, and his two passengers, Monica Castillo, 20, of Delaware and Kristina Terrell, 43, of Connecticut, were returning to Danbury Municipal Airport in Connecticut after taking a tour of the Statue of Liberty when the engine in his four-seat Piper PA-28 began to fail. The pilot of the 1966 single-engine Piper called air traffic control to request an emergency landing, according to the newly released ATC recording obtained by NBC News. The air traffic control operator suggested LaGuardia Airport:
But the pilot responded, “I’ll never make it, where do I touch down?”
The ATC operator then seemed to struggle to come up with a solution, saying “I'm not sure where you can touch down if you're not going to make it” he said.
He suggested, “Harlem river, Major Deegan — that would be populated though.”
The operator then advised the pilot to avoid the Major Deegan and maybe try to land in the nearby Van Cortlandt Park, which is about 1,100 acres.
"I’m at less than 1,000 feet" the pilot reported before he was forced to land on the expressway in the middle of the afternoon.Fortunately, due to the quick thinking of Miguel Lopez, a supervisor with the Dept. of Transportation, who was doing repair work on the roadway when he noticed the plane in distress heading toward them, no cars were hit when the aircraft set down at around 3:20 p.m. on the northbound side of the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx. Officials told CBS 2 that the three were lucky to survive the landing. "You have light poles that are in the center of the roadway and dividers, moving cars, icy pavement, all these factors working against him," Jared Fox, a flight instructor who trains students on the type of aircraft involved in the incident, told Connecticut News 12. "The fact that he was able to do so, get the airplane down with no major structural damage to the airplane and no injuries is A-plus on his part." 'Why don’t you ask him?' Reached Saturday evening for comment, Michael Schwartz’s wife, Giovanna, told lohud.com she had just learned of the landing. Schwartz and his two female passengers emerged from the plane with only minor injuries. Schwartz’s wife said she was not on the aircraft and declined further comment, the news outlet stated. “Why don’t you ask him?” she said. “I’m sure he would be happy to tell you.” Schwartz has not yet responded to a call for comment, according to local news outlets.
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Video: Pilot pleads for help before landing on NY highway