Two males concerned in East River airplane crash — once more – NBC New York
Two airplane crashes in the identical space of the East River each concerned the identical pilot and passenger, simply six years aside.
In the newest crash, no one on board was badly harm. However that wasn’t the case when a airplane with the identical man on the controls went down in 2020.
Simply earlier than 9:30 a.m. Saturday, the FDNY rescued a pilot and a passenger of a small airplane that went down within the water close to the Throgs Neck Bridge in Whitestone. There’s hypothesis it might need been attributable to hitting a rogue wave. There have been no accidents reported, and the airplane was later pulled out of the water.
The person piloting the seaplane was Joe Oppedisano, who owns Il Bacco restaurant in Queens. He additionally was the pilot behind one other crash in Oct. 2020 that proved lethal.
He and the identical passenger who was on board Saturday had been critically harm when his Cessna single-engine airplane went down in Whitestone that 12 months. However in that incident, one other passenger, Maggie O’Neill, died.
Witnesses mentioned the airplane was touring alongside the water, skipped twice, and hit a pier. Oppedisano suffered a damaged ankle and 16 fractured ribs. He underwent a number of surgical procedures.
Oppedisano’s daughter mentioned Monday afternoon that her father was doing OK.
The Nationwide Transportation Security Board discovered the possible explanation for the 2020 crash to be because of the “pilot’s determination.” The federal company shouldn’t be mentioned to be concerned within the more moderen incident.
