LIRR Ronkonkoma line service fully restored for Monday morning commute

Service on the LIRR Ronkonkoma line was fully restored for the Monday morning rush hour after a deadly small plane crash near a Hicksville railroad crossing.

The Sunday crash suspended service as Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials and other authorities conducted an investigation and cleared the plane wreckage from the scene.

The plane, a Beechcraft C-35 Bonanza, crashed between the Hicksville and Bethpage Long Island Rail Road stations shortly before 8 a.m., destroying signal lights at the South Oyster Bay Road crossing and forcing a suspension of the Ronkonkoma line in both directions that lasted more than 12 hours.

LIRR officials announced service was fully restored about 8:45 p.m.

The pilot, who had not been identified late Sunday, died. Passenger Carl Giordano, 55, of New Vernon, New Jersey, was in critical condition at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow.

The airplane wreckage was removed in the early evening, but before that an LIRR repair crew had to wait for emergency personnel, the medical examiner's office and an investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board to finish their work so damage could be assessed.

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.