Post by musicradio77 on May 22, 2005 12:04:28 GMT -5
From the Daily News:
Four dead in Coney crash
Plane slams into beach
This story was reported by: MAKI BECKER,
CHRISENA COLEMAN,TRACY CONNOR,
LISA MUÑOZ, TONY SCLAFANI,
PAUL H.B. SHIN, and OREN YANIV
It was written by: CONNOR
A teenage tourist cheated death death yesterday when she begged off a ride in a small plane that later crashed on the beach at Coney Island, killing two of her friends, one girl's father and the pilot.
The white Cessna 172 lost power during a sharp turn, nosedived 100 feet into the sand and shattered into pieces - but miraculously missed sunbathers enjoying a gorgeous spring day. "It was like you threw a dart up and it came straight down," said neighborhood resident Larry Simmons, 42.
"It was about as high as the Wonder Wheel or the Astroland ride," said Norma Ramos. "It made a turn and went straight down. It was a real nosedive."
Mayor Bloomberg said it was lucky the crash hadn't occurred a few days later, when the beach could have been packed with 350,000 people for Memorial Day weekend.
"The good news, if there can be any good news, is this beach opens next week so there were not very many people here," he said.
The pilot, Endrew Allen, 34, of Jamaica, Queens, a flight instructor at Linden Airport in New Jersey, was killed instantly, along with his three passengers.
They were identified as William Courtney Block, 38, a UPS driver from Benwood, W.Va.; his daughter, Danielle, 18, and her friend, Joelbeth Gross, 18, of McMechen, W.Va.
In a twist of fate, a schoolmate of the teens' was spared because she got spooked after takeoff and made the pilot return to Linden Airport. She got off the plane and William Block got on, relatives said.
"I talked to my son this morning and he said the girls wanted to fly in this airplane. He wasn't planning on going up," the dead man's father, also named William Block, told the Daily News.
"But then this one girl got scared and they came back down and landed and my son took her place."
Sobbing, he said: "My son and my granddaughter are dead because of something we have no control over. I wish I knew what happened over there."
The victims were part of a group that traveled from West Virginia to New Jersey to see a "Beatlemania" show at Roselle Catholic High School in New Jersey, where one of their former teachers now works.
The Cessna sightseeing trip was supposed to be a highlight of the weekend. The girls boasted the single-engine plane's dual controls meant they would be able to co-pilot the craft, a family member said.
An airport worker said the plane's engine stalled on the ground but the pilot got it going before takeoff.
It then headed for Coney Island as Block's wife, the teen who opted out of the flight and her mother waited behind.
About 1:30 p.m., as it sputtered low over the famous beach, the plane appeared to have engine trouble, and its low altitude could have made it difficult to recover. Jesse Jones, 27, was playing handball near the Boardwalk when he spotted the Cessna circling over KeySpan Park, the Brooklyn Cyclones' field.
"The engine shut down twice," he said. "The first time, it was over the field. The second time, he was next to the lights. He was trying to get it started again but he couldn't." As the plane headed toward the water, the engine failed again and it flipped. Some onlookers assumed it was a stunt.
"We thought he was doing a trick and it will go up again," said Ira Polischuk, 48. Instead, it went into a tailspin and slammed down about 50 feet from the surf, in the shadow of the Cyclone roller coaster and the Parachute Jump.
The tremendous thud and plume of white smoke sent dozens of people running for cover. "It hit hard," Jones said. "The left wing just flew right off and the gas started leaking all over."
Joshua McCabe, a registered nurse from San Diego who was eating at Nathan's, was among the first to reach the wreckage.
The cabin was so mangled only those on the right side - the pilot in the front seat and a female passenger behind him - were fully visible.
They were barely alive.
"She wasn't breathing and then she lost her pulse," McCabe said.
The man's neck and arm appeared to be broken.
"The guy on the right side [the pilot], he had a little pulse at first but then he was gone," said Jones, a former paramedic who lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
The other two were beyond help. "You could tell they were dead," Jones said.
Eight cops assigned to a counterterrorism detail and two off-duty paramedics on the Boardwalk witnessed the crash and were at the site within three minutes, authorities said. The engine was still roaring but quickly died out. The FDNY's Ladder 161, Battalion 42 and Rescue 5 stretched foam lines on the beach, but the plane never caught fire.
The National Transportation Safety Board hauled the wreck away to Floyd Bennett Field, and the bodies were taken to the medical examiner's office for autopsies.
There was no suggestion of foul play, however.
"Obviously, something went tragically wrong and four people are dead," Bloomberg said. "It just looks like some kind of terrible accident."
News of the crash hit hard in West Virginia.
"I'm shocked on it," said Sidney Tyrell, 48, who lives next door to Joelbeth. "She was going to be graduating this month. She was a very beautiful girl."
The teen, whose mother died of cervical cancer several years ago, was a basketball and softball player who was planning to attend Bethany College in West Virginia in the fall. "It's going to be hard for her dad, recently losing his wife and now losing his daughter," said another neighbor, Brenda Higgins, 43.
Danielle had won several scholarships to Wheeling Jesuit, and her father was bursting with pride, her grandfather said.
"They were both living life to the fullest," he said. "Everyone was their friend. She was a little adventurer and he feared nothing. And he sure loved his family."
He said he couldn't stop thinking about the last talk he had with his son, when he told him he wasn't going on the plane with the girls.
"I wish I would have handed the phone to my wife this morning, so she could have talked to him one last time."
FINAL MOMENTS OF THE DOOMED FLIGHT
The plane embarks from Linden Airport in New Jersey on a sightseeing flight with a pilot and three teenage girls from West Virginia. It quickly turns around because one of the girls is scared. Upon landing, the father of one of the teens takes her place. The Cessna then begins its last journey to Coney Island:
The Cessna takes off again about 1 p.m. The engine shuts down as the Cessna flies over KeySpan Park — the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones. The small plane is flying no higher than the top of the famed Wonder Wheel, which stands 150 feet high.
The pilot tries to restart the engine. Witnesses hear it turn back on, only to shut off again over the Boardwalk.
At 1:30 p.m., the plane plunges into the beach about 50 feet from the water near W. 16th St.
CESSNA 172 SKYHAWK
# Four-seat, single-prop engine
# Built in 2001
# Registered to RJ Ventures of Paramus, N.J.
# Empty weight: 1,500 pounds
# Cruising speed: 110 knots (127 mph)
# One of the most popular small aircraft of all time, often used for sightseeing because its high-wing design allows an unobstructed view of the ground.
TROUBLED PAST
Recent mishaps involving Cessnas:
# May 11: Two confused fliers in a two-seat Cessna 150 wandered into restricted air space over Washington, causing panicked evacuations of the White House, Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court.
# April 23: A student pilot and his instructor were killed when a Cessna 172 crashed in a wooded area about 2 miles from Westchester County Airport. The pilot had apparently been practicing instrument landing approaches, according to the FAA.
# April 23: A 46-year-old pilot was forced to land a rented 1979 Cessna 172 on Main St. in Duncanville, Tex., when the engine suddenly cut out at 1,500 feet. No one was hurt.
# Jan. 5, 2002: A suicidal teenager, Charles Bishop, flew a Cessna 172R into a building in downtown Tampa, killing himself. No one else was injured. He left a note expressing sympathy for Osama Bin Laden.
Four dead in Coney crash
Plane slams into beach
This story was reported by: MAKI BECKER,
CHRISENA COLEMAN,TRACY CONNOR,
LISA MUÑOZ, TONY SCLAFANI,
PAUL H.B. SHIN, and OREN YANIV
It was written by: CONNOR
A teenage tourist cheated death death yesterday when she begged off a ride in a small plane that later crashed on the beach at Coney Island, killing two of her friends, one girl's father and the pilot.
The white Cessna 172 lost power during a sharp turn, nosedived 100 feet into the sand and shattered into pieces - but miraculously missed sunbathers enjoying a gorgeous spring day. "It was like you threw a dart up and it came straight down," said neighborhood resident Larry Simmons, 42.
"It was about as high as the Wonder Wheel or the Astroland ride," said Norma Ramos. "It made a turn and went straight down. It was a real nosedive."
Mayor Bloomberg said it was lucky the crash hadn't occurred a few days later, when the beach could have been packed with 350,000 people for Memorial Day weekend.
"The good news, if there can be any good news, is this beach opens next week so there were not very many people here," he said.
The pilot, Endrew Allen, 34, of Jamaica, Queens, a flight instructor at Linden Airport in New Jersey, was killed instantly, along with his three passengers.
They were identified as William Courtney Block, 38, a UPS driver from Benwood, W.Va.; his daughter, Danielle, 18, and her friend, Joelbeth Gross, 18, of McMechen, W.Va.
In a twist of fate, a schoolmate of the teens' was spared because she got spooked after takeoff and made the pilot return to Linden Airport. She got off the plane and William Block got on, relatives said.
"I talked to my son this morning and he said the girls wanted to fly in this airplane. He wasn't planning on going up," the dead man's father, also named William Block, told the Daily News.
"But then this one girl got scared and they came back down and landed and my son took her place."
Sobbing, he said: "My son and my granddaughter are dead because of something we have no control over. I wish I knew what happened over there."
The victims were part of a group that traveled from West Virginia to New Jersey to see a "Beatlemania" show at Roselle Catholic High School in New Jersey, where one of their former teachers now works.
The Cessna sightseeing trip was supposed to be a highlight of the weekend. The girls boasted the single-engine plane's dual controls meant they would be able to co-pilot the craft, a family member said.
An airport worker said the plane's engine stalled on the ground but the pilot got it going before takeoff.
It then headed for Coney Island as Block's wife, the teen who opted out of the flight and her mother waited behind.
About 1:30 p.m., as it sputtered low over the famous beach, the plane appeared to have engine trouble, and its low altitude could have made it difficult to recover. Jesse Jones, 27, was playing handball near the Boardwalk when he spotted the Cessna circling over KeySpan Park, the Brooklyn Cyclones' field.
"The engine shut down twice," he said. "The first time, it was over the field. The second time, he was next to the lights. He was trying to get it started again but he couldn't." As the plane headed toward the water, the engine failed again and it flipped. Some onlookers assumed it was a stunt.
"We thought he was doing a trick and it will go up again," said Ira Polischuk, 48. Instead, it went into a tailspin and slammed down about 50 feet from the surf, in the shadow of the Cyclone roller coaster and the Parachute Jump.
The tremendous thud and plume of white smoke sent dozens of people running for cover. "It hit hard," Jones said. "The left wing just flew right off and the gas started leaking all over."
Joshua McCabe, a registered nurse from San Diego who was eating at Nathan's, was among the first to reach the wreckage.
The cabin was so mangled only those on the right side - the pilot in the front seat and a female passenger behind him - were fully visible.
They were barely alive.
"She wasn't breathing and then she lost her pulse," McCabe said.
The man's neck and arm appeared to be broken.
"The guy on the right side [the pilot], he had a little pulse at first but then he was gone," said Jones, a former paramedic who lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
The other two were beyond help. "You could tell they were dead," Jones said.
Eight cops assigned to a counterterrorism detail and two off-duty paramedics on the Boardwalk witnessed the crash and were at the site within three minutes, authorities said. The engine was still roaring but quickly died out. The FDNY's Ladder 161, Battalion 42 and Rescue 5 stretched foam lines on the beach, but the plane never caught fire.
The National Transportation Safety Board hauled the wreck away to Floyd Bennett Field, and the bodies were taken to the medical examiner's office for autopsies.
There was no suggestion of foul play, however.
"Obviously, something went tragically wrong and four people are dead," Bloomberg said. "It just looks like some kind of terrible accident."
News of the crash hit hard in West Virginia.
"I'm shocked on it," said Sidney Tyrell, 48, who lives next door to Joelbeth. "She was going to be graduating this month. She was a very beautiful girl."
The teen, whose mother died of cervical cancer several years ago, was a basketball and softball player who was planning to attend Bethany College in West Virginia in the fall. "It's going to be hard for her dad, recently losing his wife and now losing his daughter," said another neighbor, Brenda Higgins, 43.
Danielle had won several scholarships to Wheeling Jesuit, and her father was bursting with pride, her grandfather said.
"They were both living life to the fullest," he said. "Everyone was their friend. She was a little adventurer and he feared nothing. And he sure loved his family."
He said he couldn't stop thinking about the last talk he had with his son, when he told him he wasn't going on the plane with the girls.
"I wish I would have handed the phone to my wife this morning, so she could have talked to him one last time."
FINAL MOMENTS OF THE DOOMED FLIGHT
The plane embarks from Linden Airport in New Jersey on a sightseeing flight with a pilot and three teenage girls from West Virginia. It quickly turns around because one of the girls is scared. Upon landing, the father of one of the teens takes her place. The Cessna then begins its last journey to Coney Island:
The Cessna takes off again about 1 p.m. The engine shuts down as the Cessna flies over KeySpan Park — the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones. The small plane is flying no higher than the top of the famed Wonder Wheel, which stands 150 feet high.
The pilot tries to restart the engine. Witnesses hear it turn back on, only to shut off again over the Boardwalk.
At 1:30 p.m., the plane plunges into the beach about 50 feet from the water near W. 16th St.
CESSNA 172 SKYHAWK
# Four-seat, single-prop engine
# Built in 2001
# Registered to RJ Ventures of Paramus, N.J.
# Empty weight: 1,500 pounds
# Cruising speed: 110 knots (127 mph)
# One of the most popular small aircraft of all time, often used for sightseeing because its high-wing design allows an unobstructed view of the ground.
TROUBLED PAST
Recent mishaps involving Cessnas:
# May 11: Two confused fliers in a two-seat Cessna 150 wandered into restricted air space over Washington, causing panicked evacuations of the White House, Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court.
# April 23: A student pilot and his instructor were killed when a Cessna 172 crashed in a wooded area about 2 miles from Westchester County Airport. The pilot had apparently been practicing instrument landing approaches, according to the FAA.
# April 23: A 46-year-old pilot was forced to land a rented 1979 Cessna 172 on Main St. in Duncanville, Tex., when the engine suddenly cut out at 1,500 feet. No one was hurt.
# Jan. 5, 2002: A suicidal teenager, Charles Bishop, flew a Cessna 172R into a building in downtown Tampa, killing himself. No one else was injured. He left a note expressing sympathy for Osama Bin Laden.