Shepherd
Final Approach
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/...01/305040019/Divers-find-body-pilot-72-Hudson
GERMANTOWN — Divers have found the body of a pilot in a debris field on the bottom of the Hudson River where his amphibious airplane crashed and sank, state police said.
They said 72-year-old Michael Braunstein’s body was recovered about 4:30 p.m. Friday, 24 hours after the plane went down near the river’s east bank in Germantown in Columbia County. Germantown is 30 miles north of Poughkeepsie.
Troopers say wreckage indicated the plane was a twin-engine Grumman G44A Widgeon, a World War II-era reconnaissance aircraft designed to land on water.
Rick Georgeson, state Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman, told the Poughkeepsie Journal in an email that environmental conservation officers were at the scene Thursday and Friday.
“Staff surveyed the crash site and noted a light sheen and slight petroleum odor on the river,” Georgeson wrote.
“However, the sheen was not extensive and appeared to be evaporating quickly. There is no indication of any significant environmental impacts at the crash site.”
Braunstein, who owned the plane and was flying alone, didn’t return after taking off from a private airfield in his nearby hometown of Copake about a half-hour before the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the cause of the accident.
GERMANTOWN — Divers have found the body of a pilot in a debris field on the bottom of the Hudson River where his amphibious airplane crashed and sank, state police said.
They said 72-year-old Michael Braunstein’s body was recovered about 4:30 p.m. Friday, 24 hours after the plane went down near the river’s east bank in Germantown in Columbia County. Germantown is 30 miles north of Poughkeepsie.
Troopers say wreckage indicated the plane was a twin-engine Grumman G44A Widgeon, a World War II-era reconnaissance aircraft designed to land on water.
Rick Georgeson, state Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman, told the Poughkeepsie Journal in an email that environmental conservation officers were at the scene Thursday and Friday.
“Staff surveyed the crash site and noted a light sheen and slight petroleum odor on the river,” Georgeson wrote.
“However, the sheen was not extensive and appeared to be evaporating quickly. There is no indication of any significant environmental impacts at the crash site.”
Braunstein, who owned the plane and was flying alone, didn’t return after taking off from a private airfield in his nearby hometown of Copake about a half-hour before the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the cause of the accident.