Posted on 05/21/2005 2:42:09 PM PDT by Pharmboy
NEW YORK (AP) - A small plane on a sightseeing tour over Coney Island went into a tailspin and slammed into the famous beach Sunday, killing all four people aboard but injuring none of the stunned sunbathers who witnessed the crash. The victims died at the scene of the afternoon crash of the Cessna 172S, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker said. There were relatively few people on the beach at the time, and no one on the ground was hurt.
Eyewitnesses said the plane was circling above the Brooklyn beach when its engine suddenly stalled, and the aircraft quickly plunged into the beach. The pilot tried desperately to right the four-year-old plane after it went into a tailspin, said Herbert Lecler, 51, who was fishing on the beach.
"He couldn't, and he bounced on that beach," Lecler said.
Joshua McCabe, a registered nurse visiting from San Diego, was eating inside Nathan's Famous hot dog restaurant when he heard the crash. McCabe and another witness rushed to the scene, where they found the pilot already dead and a female passenger barely alive.
Within seconds, he said, "she wasn't breathing and then she lost her pulse."
Dick Zigun, a longtime Coney Island resident who was at the crash site, said it looked like the plane had come down nose-first. Several sunbathers were on the beach at the time, although the crowd was sparse, he said.
"The wings are broken off, and the cockpit glass was smashed up," Zigun said. "It didn't look like anyone could survive that."
Police and fire officials moved quickly to close off the beach after the crash. Dozens of people were gathered along the boardwalk staring out at the wreckage.
The crash occurred within sight of the Wonder Wheel attraction at the world-renowned beach, home to the Cyclone rollercoaster and the Astroland amusement park. The plane hit the beach near KeySpan Park, a minor league baseball stadium.
The pilot was a New York City resident, while the other three victims were visiting from the South and were on a sightseeing tour for aspiring pilots, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference.
"Obviously something went tragically wrong, and four people are dead," Bloomberg said. "We should be glad there are not more."
None of the victims were immediately identified, pending notification of their families.
The cause of the crash was unknown, and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The plane was registered to RJ Ventures LLC of Paramus, N.J.
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Associated Press Writer Larry McShane contributed to this story.
This is bookmarked to see what the NTSB says in a couple of weeks.
I think about all the kids who will have that image in their heads for a long time.
The NTSB doesn't have much on reports before the early 80's but what they do have says to me, the crew got way behind the aircraft. Were you close enough to hear the crash?
Common sense reactions such as full throttle makes a spin harder to get out of, as does pulling back the yoke. A Cessna 172 has very good spin recovery ability if not aggravated. It's actually hard to keep it in a spin, assuming you've got 1,000 feet of altitude. It's one of the very few airplanes that spin practice is allowed in. But like full throttle, passengers in the back flatten the spin making it harder to recover from.
Are any of you old egough to remember the big Blue Whale they brought to display behind Nathans?
It was embalmed and on a flatbed trailer, had a "carny" type show.
The thing stunk like hell in the summer heat, then one day the thing caught fire, almost took Nathens with it.
I remember seeing the Thunderbirds flying StrightWing F-84 just before they trans. to the F-100.
Also the Blues were flying Grumman F11F-1 Tigers.
Damn I'm old!
That sounds really strange :-)
What? The part about the whale or me being REALLY OLD ?
(:^)
The part about the whale :-)
That's better !!!
FOX NEWS covering this now
I remember this well because my father worked at the airport at the time as a ramp worker and his picture was in the newspaper the next day as one of many standing around the crash site. This happened on runway 4E which was only about three or four miles from my house. Over in Winthrop (next town over) you can actually see 4E across the water and the planes come a couple hundred feet over your head. Still an awesome sight. I used to take my kids out to Winthrop all the time to see the planes come in.
Yep--an really dumb remark by bloomin' idjyot.
I know nothing about flying but I had always thought that a stall related to airspeed and wings. Thanks.
I have known of many similar accidents in Cessna 172s where the aircraft was just rolled up in a ball of tinfoil. OTOH, I had a friend who survived TWO crashes in Stinsons in which the plane wound up upside down, but all walked away unharmed. The good old steel tube fuselage cage could take a lot of crash impact safely, but it wasn't suited to "mass production". Besides that, Stinsons are a joy to fly compared to any Cessna product I have ever had my hands on. Just MHO.
Sounds like the Viper glides a wee bit better than that Osprey. That's if a 30k Lb. metal cinder block on a parabolic path - the path being slightly altered due to the wings that are attached to the cinder block - can be called gliding.
Quite often in these circumstances, accident investigators discover the yoke bent backwards (or the wheel sometimes actually pulled off). Do you know why that is?
That's because when one encounters a stall, one suddenly begins to feel like they're falling backwards (nevermind your instruments are telling you you have forward airspeed). What's the most natural human reaction to such a feeling? And what's the closest thing to a pilot that'll satisfy that urge?
Ping
Every eye witness said the same thing. The plane was circling over the beach for nearly 30 minutes when it suddenly nosed down and into the beach.
We don't call him Blooming-idiot for nothing.
"We should be glad there are not more," said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
No, mister illiterate public servant, there is nothing here to be glad about.
Say, instead, "It is fortunate there were not more."
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