Four Long Island men injured in upstate plane crash

A single-engine plane carrying four Long Island men crashed just beyond a runway after taking off Thursday night, the owner of the upstate airport restaurant told Newsday.

Michael Gelsomine, a Bay Shore native who owns Nu-CAVU restaurant at Wallkill AirPark, said the four had stopped at the airport for dinner and were taking off about 9:45 p.m. when the plane crashed about an eighth of a mile past the runway.

"Something happened," Gelsomine said. "They got up over the trees, had trouble having elevation and they went down right across New Hurley Road."

"One of the guys watching them take off was a National Guard pilot and he said they got the nose up, maybe not enough speed," Gelsomine said. "They went up, over the trees, then sort of just disappeared."

Pilot Robert Schmidt, 48, of Bay Shore, and passengers John Brienza, 51, of Farmingdale, Anthony Errera, 31, of Baldwin and Robert Kroll, 42, of West Sayville, were injured in the crash of the 1978 Cessna 172 N.

Police said Schmidt and Brienza were airlifted to Westchester County Medical Center. The extent of their injuries was not known Friday.

Errera was transported to St. Luke's Hospital in Newburgh, police said. Kroll was taken to St. Francis Hospital, where he was in critical but stable condition, The Associated Press reported Friday.

State Police said two of the four were ejected from the airplane and the other two had to be extricated from the wreckage.

Initial reports said the airplane was trying to land at the airport and overshot the runway. The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Friday that the plane was taking off.

NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said the Cessna crashed in a residential subdivision and that two of the men were seriously injured.

A number listed for Schmidt connected to a fax machine. No one answered phone numbers listed for the other men Friday.

The FAA said the pilot was operating under visual flight rules and didn't need to file a flight plan, so it was not clear where the flight originated.

But Gelsomine said the plane was based out of Republic Airport in East Farmingdale and believed it might have been headed there Thursday.

Gelsomine said pilots and their guests often stop at the field to eat lunch or dinner during a day of sightseeing and said he has regular customers from New York, Connecticut and even Maine.

He also told Newsday another plane had taken off just before the flight by the foursome. "It was busy," he said. "It all seemed pretty normal."

Wallkill AirPark is between Modena, N.Y., and Platteville, next to the New York State Thruway and south of New Paltz. The site is about 80 miles north of New York City.

The airfield is privately owned with an asphalt runaway that is 50 feet wide and 2,864 feet long, according to the FAA. The runway surface is said to be in "excellent" condition.

The airport owner, William Richards, was not available for comment. An airport employee said he was on vacation.