Small seaplane makes crash landing in New York’s East River, officials say
By Sneha Dhandapani, CNN
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating after a seaplane made a hard landing in the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan on Sunday, causing “substantial damage” to the aircraft, a spokesperson tells CNN.
The New York Fire Department received a call at 12:01 p.m. about the aircraft in the river north of the Williamsburg Bridge.
A 16-year-old passenger, Khloe Todd, was recording video when the Kodiak 100 seaplane came in for a landing. It shows the plane bumping the water three times, before tilting sharply to the left as warnings in the plane’s cockpit sound and passengers gasp.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday,” the pilot says into a radio.
“What happened?” a passenger asks.
“Pontoon broke,” the pilot replies. “Put your PFDs (personal flotation devices) on, ok?”
Other video from outside the plane appears to show it skipping across the surface three times. On the third impact, the struts supporting the left float appear to collapse. The plane then decelerates abruptly, throwing up a large plume of water before coming to rest in the river.
All eight people on the plane were rescued by the fire department. Two sustained minor injuries and declined medical attention at the scene, the FDNY said.
The plane took off from East Hampton Airport at 11:24 a.m., according to open-source flight tracking data. It flew across Long Island before descending along the East River to prepare to land at a seaplane base in Manhattan.
Audio from ATC.com captured the moment a nearby NYPD helicopter responded to the incident.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday,” the pilot of a different plane reported. “We have a plane down in the water.”
The police helicopter responded and immediately had the downed aircraft in sight.
“It looks like the pilot is OK,” the NYPD helicopter pilot radioed, according to the ATC.com audio.
“There (are) passengers on board,” the pilot of the other plane warned as boats approached the plane.
The rough landing caused a strut to snap, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which will investigate the incident along with the NTSB.
The Kodiak 100 seaplane was built last year, according to FAA ownership records. The plane’s owner is not publicly listed.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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CNN’s Pete Muntean, Aaron Cooper and Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.
