AN EMPTY TANK
Miracle plane ran out of fuel before L.I. crash
A small plane that barely missed crashing into a Long Island home ran out of fuel while en route to Kennedy Airport in heavy fog, police said Monday.
The Cessna 172, carrying three people, became tangled in power lines on Clarendon Drive in Valley Stream and was left dangling only feet from the house about 10:20 p.m. on Sunday.
Nassau County police spokesman Detective Richard LeBrun said the wires stopped the plane from hitting the house. About two dozen homes were left without power, officials said.
The pilot and two passengers suffered minor injuries.
The small single-engine craft was rented from Danny Waizman Flight School and Aircraft Rental in Farmingdale.
Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said the three onboard were associated with a flight school at Republic Airport in Farmingdale and the plane had been rented at Republic.
Valley Stream Fire Chief Jason Croak said the Cessna made four attempts to land at Republic but the pilot became disoriented due to thick fog and missed each time. The plane was redirected to Kennedy Airport, but the pilot again became disoriented and the plane ran out of fuel, officials said. It went down about 7 miles from Kennedy.
Police said Monday that the pilot, Dongil Kim, 27, of Flushing, Queens, was attempting to land when the plane struck the roof of Revival Outreach Ministries International at 215 Hillside Ave. in Valley Stream before getting caught in the wires about a block away.
George Shuchman, 65, who lives near the crash site, recalled how foggy it was Sunday night and told the Daily News, “I was like, ‘Thank God it wasn’t my house.’
“There were an insane amount of emergency service vehicles here last night. The people only had little cuts on their fingers.,” he recounted.
“I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Shuchman said.
People said that when the lights went out in the immediate area, they also lost Wi-Fi connections.
By Monday afternoon, the plane had been righted and workers were planning to tow it away.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.
The two passengers were identified as Hung Joo-Na, 29, and Jung Woo, 26. They cleared the plane and were sitting on the sidewalk with the pilot when emergency services arrived, Ryder said.
There were reports that the three were returning from Niagara Falls near the Canadian border.
The National Weather Service had issued a dense fog advisory at the time of the crash.
Keith Holloway, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, told The News the agency would be working with the FAA, which is collecting information at the crash site.
“We’ll be looking at the origin and history of the flight, communications with air traffic control, radar and weather data, the pilot’s flight history, medical history and background, and the plane’s records,” Holloway said.
He said his agency expects to have a preliminary report on the crash in about 10 days.