NTSB releases preliminary report on plane crash at New York and Connecticut border
The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report on the plane crash last month on the border of New York and Connecticut on I-684.
The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report on the plane crash last month on the border of New York and Connecticut on I-684.
The plane crash killed Yankele Friedman, 32, of Monsey and injured 26-year-old Kalmen Goldberger.
The three-page preliminary report says the plane took off from Linden, New Jersey around 6:10 p.m. on Dec. 12 and flew north over the Hudson River towards Albany.
One of the pilots radioed air traffic controllers and reported they were "losing our engine" and wanted to divert to Westchester County Airport. One of the pilots then radioed controllers that they "...switched fuel tanks and it looks like it's we got our engine back for now...."
But just a few minutes later, pilots reported that they were losing the engine again.
Sal Lagonia, an aviation expert, says the report wasn't surprising to him.
"There's a real strong possibility that fuel may have led to this problem, either fuel exhaustion meaning it leaked out somehow or it didn't get to the engine properly," he says.
The NTSB says the initial examination of the engine "did not reveal any evidence of a catastrophic mechanical failure or malfunction." The report also found "no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction" of the flight controls.
Lagonia says more information is needed to find out what happened.
"We really want to see what happened to the engine and to the systems that lead into the engine, such as the fuel system," says Lagonia.
We've also learned that a witness pulled one person out of the plane before Westchester County police arrived. The report does not name the witness or which pilot he pulled out of the plane. But it says he was driving south on I-684 and reported seeing the plane about a half mile ahead of him and saw it "fall very fast out of the sky and crash in the center median."
Lagonia says it could take months to a year before a final report is released.
