Pilot, Passenger ID'd In Fatal Westchester County Airport Crash

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY — The pilot and a passenger were killed when a single engine plane attempting to make an emergency landing crashed in a wooded area near the Westchester County Airport.

Initial details were sparse on Thursday evening, but it was quickly apparent that the worst had happened.

"A single-engine Beechcraft A36 crashed after the pilot reported engine issues approximately one mile from Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y. around 6:15 p.m. local time on Thursday, Jan. 19," a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesperson said in a statement to Patch Thursday night. "An unknown number of people were on board. Local search-and-rescue personnel are looking for the aircraft. The plane was traveling from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Cuyahoga County Airport in Richmond Heights, Ohio."

Pilot Boruch Taub and his passenger, Ben Chafetz, both from the Cleveland area, died in the crash, according to Westchester County officials, who confirmed that the plane and the two bodies were found in a wooded area near Rye Lake, in Armonk, just west of the airport.

"[I am] Saddened by the news of the passing of two prominent members of the Orthodox Community in the tragic plane crash near Westchester County Airport yesterday," NYS Senator Peter Harckham said in a statement released Friday morning. "My deepest condolences to their families."

The Cleveland Jewish News reports that Taub owned an automotive repair business in Cleveland Heights.

Ben Chafetz owned a technology company, according to the report. He had seven children with his wife, Smadar, and received the Community Service Award from the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland in 2018.

According to the Jewish Chronicle, the pair were on their way to Ohio to attend a funeral.

The paper reports that Chafetz sent a text message to a WhatsApp group, thinking he was writing to his wife. In the message, he wrote that the aircraft had "lost engines."

"The message read: 'I love you and the kids,'" according to the Chronicle report.

During a Friday morning press conference, Westchester County Executive George Latimer said that the medical examiner's office worked through the night so that the bodies of Taub and Chafetz could be flown home Friday morning in order to be buried according to Jewish tradition.

"My condolences to the families of the victims of last night's plane crash near Westchester County Airport, members of the Orthodox community," NYS Assemblyman Chris Burdick wrote Friday afternoon. "Our thoughts and prayers are with their loved ones, friends, and the community. I would also like to acknowledge the hard work of all the brave first responders involved in the massive search-and-rescue operation that took place following the plane's disappearance."

The plane had departed JFK shortly before 5 p.m., bound for Ohio.

The pilot had radioed air traffic controllers that the plane was approaching the Westchester County Airport, but then went silent, Westchester police spokesperson Kieran O'Leary told the AP Thursday night. "There's a search under way to determine what happened with that aircraft." O'Leary added that emergency responders, including Westchester County police and firefighters, were combing through nearby woods and a reservoir.

During Friday morning's press conference, April Gasparri, Manager of the Westchester County Airport, confirmed that Taub made contact with air traffic control advising of low engine oil pressure. Air traffic control was able to maintain communications with him, while the plane attempted to approach runway 16, up until around 5:30 p.m.

"He was losing altitude," County Executive George Latimer said. "That's what happens when the plane is deficient in whatever fashion. So my sense is that had he had a little more altitude and a little more time he'd have made it safely to the runway."

At that point, a "Level 1 Alert," indicating a small aircraft was involved in an incident, was activated, according to Westchester County Department of Emergency Services Commissioner Richard Wishnie.

The four primary departments that responded were: the Armonk Fire Department, the Port Chester Fire Department, the Purchase Fire Department, and the West Harrison Fire Department.

Armonk EMS, Harrison EMS, and Port Chester EMS also immediately responded to the scene.

Additional agencies that responded included the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Westchester County Police Department, the Westchester County Office of Emergency Management and the FBI. At least two dive teams reportedly staged near the water as well.

New York State Police said Thursday night that the single engine plane was last seen about 1 mile northwest of the airport in the area of the Kensico Reservoir. According to Paul Rush, Deputy Commissioner for the NYC DEP, Rye Lake is part of the NYC water supply system's Kensico Reservoir, which has around 30 billion gallons of water.

Westchester County search and rescue aircraft were limited by the low ceiling, cloud cover and, at times, heavily rainy conditions. Due to poor weather conditions, drone operations were deemed ineffective, according to Wishnie.

Westchester County Police Department Capt. James Greer then suggested pinging the cellphones of the pilot and passenger of the plane to obtain a possible location. The FBI later brought specialized equipment to ping the cellphones which immediately gave coordinates of a possible location that turned out to be the site of the wreckage, according to Wishnie.

Shortly before 11 p.m., crews found the wreckage and victims on Louden Point, a heavily wooded, 162-acre area, and the victims were confirmed to be dead, according to officials.

"We had a multi-domain search and rescue effort that included water, land, aviation and I'll call it cyber, which was the cellphone that the county executive mentioned effort to try to locate," Gasparri said. "And in the end, the remains and the aircraft and the people were found at the last location of where the FAA did have that radar blip and the last communication at 5:30 p.m. So, the process works."

It is estimated that it will take a few days to recover the wreckage of the plane from the ground and from the trees, according to NYC DEP Chief Frank Milazzo. The scene will be sealed off for the next few days during the investigation.

"Our first responders last night responded with professionalism and a tremendous energy and effort that really tells us how they have been trained and how they answered the call of their profession, of their calling," Latimer said. "We owe a debt of gratitude."

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the incident. Officials from the FAA arrived on the scene Friday morning and officials from the NTSB were expected Friday afternoon, according to officials. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide future updates.