One dead, three injured in plane crash near Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens
A 61-year-old woman was killed and at least three other people were injured when a Cessna seaplane crashed into a pier near the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens on Sunday.
The woman, identified by police as Maggie O’Neill, was aboard the single-engine Cessna 182 when it slammed into the pier at Powell’s Cove Boulevard and 158th Street in Whitestone about 3 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The plane was hardly recognizable afterward, laying heaped in a pile of scrap with its nose missing and its fuselage shorn in half.
“Witnesses said the plane was traveling rather fast along the water, skipped twice and hit the pier,” FDNY Commissioner Dan Nigro said at the scene.
“We assume the plane was landing,” Nigro said. “The pilot is a local resident here, known to many of the folks around here. He flies in and out of here, I would say often.”
“The plane is usually kept here,” the commissioner added. “There is a hangar behind his house right on the water.”
Nigro said two people, including the pilot, were in critical condition, and two others, including a good Samaritan, were treated at the scene.
The pilot was identified as Joe Oppedisano, who lives on the water and typically parks his plane alongside his Riverside Drive mansion, according to relatives and neighbors.
“He takes his plane out every day, sometimes twice a day,” neighbor Holly Koffler, 60, told The Post. “He’s a very good neighbor, a very nice guy.”
Koffler said Oppedisano has even taken locals up in the seaplane.
Oppedisano, who owns Il Bacco Italian restaurant in Little Neck, has lived on the block for more than 20 years, neighbors said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter that three people were taken to area hospitals following the crash — although the total number of people injured was unclear.
A woman getting out of a Maserati Ghilbi in tears outside Oppedisano’s home said he was okay — but others were no to lucky.
“Joe’s Okay,” she said. “He’s going to be okay. One of the passengers just died and another is in critical condition.”
Authorities were not immediately able to confirm the casualties.
Sources said several people on Jet Skis jumped in to help rescue the plane’s occupants after the crash.
Police were seen interviewing several of them after the wreck.
The plane’s torn-up fuselage remained on the pier after the crash.
The FAA said the crash is under investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board was notified and will launch a probe to determine the cause of the crash.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Rosner and Larry Celona