A suburban residential area in Long Island was visited by panic and chaos by the Bayport plane crash that took place around 7 p.m. on Sunday night, an otherwise peaceful time of the week. The small plane was carrying the pilot and one passenger when it crashed onto a quiet Bayport street and burst into flames, miraculously harming no one but the two aboard the plane. Remarkably, when the Bayport Fire Department was called to the scene of the plane crash, both the pilot and the passenger were rescued from the flaming wreckage of the small plane crash with serious but survivable injuries.
Officials call Bayport plane crash ‘nothing short of a miracle’: https://t.co/Dq3FE2JHKy pic.twitter.com/7AknG6iXtS
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) April 11, 2016
The small plane crashed through trees, skidded along the road into a utility pole on 3rd Avenue before coming to a halt half a block later. The plane crash came to a terrifying, spectacular end when the plane wreckage erupted in flames, leading onlookers to believe the pilot and passenger almost certainly dead.
An eyewitness and Bayport resident told ABC Eyewitness News that he saw the plane crash through his window on Sunday night.
“I was looking out my window, the plane stalled, twisted around, and it went on fire and stuff. When he hit the pole, he flipped going south,” said eyewitness James Gallo.
Pic if plane crash in #Bayport . pic.twitter.com/jbB9oNtu9W
— Erin Colton (@erincolton) April 11, 2016
Bayport officials say the pilot had lost power and was circling back to the Bayport Aerodrome landing strip when the engine failed, bringing the plane to a terrifying crash in the Long Island suburbia.
Bayport Fire Department arrived at the scene immediately, and the pilot and passenger were rescued from the flaming wreckage of the Bayport small plane crash with non-fatal injuries. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini lauded the swift response and brave actions of Bayport Fire Department and its employees.
“In an unbelievable display of heroism, [Bayport Fire Department] were able to take the pilot and the passenger out of the plane,” Sini told ABC Eyewitness News.
According to ABC,the pilot and passenger were airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital near the site of the Bayport plane crash for treatment of their injuries.
“The pilot, 35-year-old Scott Clifford, suffered a head injury and two broken legs and is in serious condition. The passenger, 65-year-old Mike Rolm, suffered head injuries. Rolm’s injuries are not considered serious,” reports ABC.
Commissioner Sini went on to say that it is “miraculous” that the crash left surrounding houses and their residents unharmed, and even more so that both the pilot and passenger were rescued from the flaming wreckage of the Bayport plane crash alive and with injuries they are expected to recover from.
“This is nothing short of a miracle – both that the airplane did not hit any houses and any other individuals,” said Sini to ABC. “We’re talking about a Sunday evening at 7:00, clearly people could be out and about.”
According to Pix 11, the Federal Aviation Association will assist in the investigation into the Bayport plane crash , which is being led by the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB’s primary focus will be determining the cause of the crash and whether or not any fault on the parts of the pilot or passenger contributed to the plane tumbling from the sky into Bayport suburbia.
The pilot and passenger rescued from the flaming wreckage of the Bayport plane crash are both Orange County residents presumed to be vacationing on the East coast at the time of the crash.
[Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images]
