Skip Miller
Final Approach
From the New York Times this morning:
The pilot of a twin-engine plane that crashed into the woods near an airport in central New Jersey in a dense fog Sunday night had been cited twice for "careless or reckless flying" and was not rated to fly by instruments, federal officials said yesterday.
Wreckage from the plane that crashed into the woods in Old Bridge, N.J., on Sunday night. Two aboard the plane were killed, and two were critically injured.
The pilot, Steve Ben-Hanania, 57, was flying his wife and their two children home from Lake Worth, Fla., when the plane crashed about 10:20 p.m. some 800 yards from the runway of the Old Bridge airport, according to the police.
Mr. Ben-Hanania and his wife, Shiry, were killed on impact, and their two children, Amber, 13, and Adam, 12, were flown to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where they remained in critical but stable condition last night, said Lt. Robert Weiss, a spokesman for the Old Bridge Police Department. He would not provide specifics on their injuries but said they "have been unresponsive."
Because of the severity of the crash and rescuers' confusion in the bad weather, the police initially said that six passengers were on board and that three had died in the crash. Witnesses told the police that they could hear the plane, a Piper Seneca PA-34-200T, circling above in the minutes before the crash.
The airport was not staffed at the time of the crash and does not have a control tower, Lieutenant Weiss said. Mr. Ben-Hanania, the owner of a used-car dealership in Brooklyn, and other pilots who use the airport are typically able to get ground conditions and activate runway lights by using instruments aboard their planes, the authorities said.
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency leading the inquiry, said yesterday that they had not yet determined whether the airport's equipment was in proper working order or whether the pilot had activated the controls. The six-seat plane, made in 1976, was not equipped with a voice or data recorder, said David Muzio, the investigator-in-charge for the board.
According to records by the Federal Aviation Administration, Mr. Ben-Hanania had his pilot's license revoked in 1992 for operating an airplane in a "careless or reckless manner," said an F.A.A. spokesman, Roland Herwig. Mr. Ben-Hanania was reissued a license in 1994, but last year he was cited again for flying in a careless or reckless manner and for flying into restricted airspace.
The family moved into a new house on Poillon Avenue on Staten Island about a month ago, according to Thomas Nicolosi, 36, a contractor who was at the house yesterday.
Attempts to reach relatives were unsuccessful.
Neighbors described Amber and Adam as polite and smart children who attend a yeshiva in Brooklyn. Ms. Ben-Hanania, neighbors said, was a quiet woman who still openly grieved for a 3-year-old son who died in a house fire six years ago.
"It's very sad," said Josephine Mezzacappa, 66, a neighbor from where the family used to live on Ramapo Avenue on Staten Island. "Another tragedy."
end of article.
I can't speak for the weather at Old Bridge NJ, but here in NYC the fog was thick. viz was less than 100 yards, but the layer did appear to be thin... The tops of the buildings were noticably clearer.
What a maroon. Bruce, Walt Kelley was right!
-Skip
The pilot of a twin-engine plane that crashed into the woods near an airport in central New Jersey in a dense fog Sunday night had been cited twice for "careless or reckless flying" and was not rated to fly by instruments, federal officials said yesterday.
Wreckage from the plane that crashed into the woods in Old Bridge, N.J., on Sunday night. Two aboard the plane were killed, and two were critically injured.
The pilot, Steve Ben-Hanania, 57, was flying his wife and their two children home from Lake Worth, Fla., when the plane crashed about 10:20 p.m. some 800 yards from the runway of the Old Bridge airport, according to the police.
Mr. Ben-Hanania and his wife, Shiry, were killed on impact, and their two children, Amber, 13, and Adam, 12, were flown to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where they remained in critical but stable condition last night, said Lt. Robert Weiss, a spokesman for the Old Bridge Police Department. He would not provide specifics on their injuries but said they "have been unresponsive."
Because of the severity of the crash and rescuers' confusion in the bad weather, the police initially said that six passengers were on board and that three had died in the crash. Witnesses told the police that they could hear the plane, a Piper Seneca PA-34-200T, circling above in the minutes before the crash.
The airport was not staffed at the time of the crash and does not have a control tower, Lieutenant Weiss said. Mr. Ben-Hanania, the owner of a used-car dealership in Brooklyn, and other pilots who use the airport are typically able to get ground conditions and activate runway lights by using instruments aboard their planes, the authorities said.
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency leading the inquiry, said yesterday that they had not yet determined whether the airport's equipment was in proper working order or whether the pilot had activated the controls. The six-seat plane, made in 1976, was not equipped with a voice or data recorder, said David Muzio, the investigator-in-charge for the board.
According to records by the Federal Aviation Administration, Mr. Ben-Hanania had his pilot's license revoked in 1992 for operating an airplane in a "careless or reckless manner," said an F.A.A. spokesman, Roland Herwig. Mr. Ben-Hanania was reissued a license in 1994, but last year he was cited again for flying in a careless or reckless manner and for flying into restricted airspace.
The family moved into a new house on Poillon Avenue on Staten Island about a month ago, according to Thomas Nicolosi, 36, a contractor who was at the house yesterday.
Attempts to reach relatives were unsuccessful.
Neighbors described Amber and Adam as polite and smart children who attend a yeshiva in Brooklyn. Ms. Ben-Hanania, neighbors said, was a quiet woman who still openly grieved for a 3-year-old son who died in a house fire six years ago.
"It's very sad," said Josephine Mezzacappa, 66, a neighbor from where the family used to live on Ramapo Avenue on Staten Island. "Another tragedy."
end of article.
I can't speak for the weather at Old Bridge NJ, but here in NYC the fog was thick. viz was less than 100 yards, but the layer did appear to be thin... The tops of the buildings were noticably clearer.
What a maroon. Bruce, Walt Kelley was right!
-Skip
Last edited:
