The pilot of a small aircraft skillfully landed in the turbulent waters of Long Island Sound, near Connecticut, just before the plane sank. Acting quickly, he called 911 to share his precise location, as per the authoritiesโ report on Monday.
The U.S. Coast Guard rescued two individuals wearing lifejackets from the water shortly before 11 a.m. on Sunday, roughly thirty minutes after the plane descended a few miles from Branfordโs coastline. They were treated for minor injuries and symptoms of hypothermia at a local hospital, as reported by the Branford Fire Department.
โOur arrival was soon after the Coast Guard,โ Branford Fire Chief Thomas Mahoney stated. โThe Coast Guard executed their response efficiently, pulling people from the water promptly before situations worsened. The pilot handled the landing adeptly in unsettling conditions, which is often not the case in such scenarios.โ
At that time, the water measured around 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 degrees Celsius), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Mahoney noted that waves were fluctuating between 3 to 6 feet (about 1 to 2 meters).
The aircraft involved was a single-engine Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee Six, which departed from Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford, Connecticut. It had been airborne for approximately 12 minutes when the incident happened, based on data from FlightAware, a flight-tracking company.
Around ten minutes into the air, the pilot reported an emergency to air traffic control in New York. They were advised to attempt landing approximately 8 miles away at Tweed-New Haven Airport, according to Andrew King, a spokesperson for Avports, the management company for Tweed-New Haven.
Preparations were made at Tweed-New Haven for an emergency landing, but contact with the plane was lost afterward, as King disclosed.
Post-crash, the pilot called 911 via cellphone to relay that his aircraft had come down in Long Island Sound and was rapidly submerging, Mahoney mentioned. By the time rescuers arrived, the plane had sunk entirely.
State and federal documentation shows the planeโs ownership belongs to a limited-liability company situated in Newtown, Connecticut, with James Edwards being the principal of the company. Edwards chose not to comment on Monday.
The crash site was adjacent to Outer Island, part of a group of roughly twenty-four islands just off the Connecticut coast.
The National Transportation Safety Board has indicated it awaits the aircraftโs recovery to assess the damageโs extent before determining if a formal investigation will commence.