Crash kills one LI man, injures another

A Wading River man was killed and an Amityville man injured Friday after their single-engine plane crashed in southern Connecticut, officials said.

Peter P. Bendzlowicz Jr. was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance. Arthur Szu was in critical condition Saturday at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Vance said. Their ages were not released.

Officials did not immediately say who was flying the plane, a 1963 Piper PA-24-250.

The men were en route to Chester Airport from Brookhaven Airport in Shirley when they crashed, Vance said. Chester Airport is about 25 miles northeast of New Haven.

Bradley International Airport's air traffic control tower and a witness told State Police about 2:37 p.m. that a small plane was having engine trouble and appeared to be going down near Chester Airport.

"We just had an aircraft in distress," said a controller at Bradley Airport, according to online air traffic control records, adding it was "trying to go into a satellite airport."

Connecticut state troopers found the plane crumpled and upside down Friday at 3:15 p.m. in a wooded area of Westbrook, off Route 145. The wreckage was spread out across the woods.

The plane was flying under visual flight rules, and "they had no contact with any traffic control authority," said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The regulations allow pilots to operate an aircraft in clear weather without instruments. If the weather is bad, pilots are required to use instrument flight rules.

FAA records show the plane is registered to Peter P. Bendzlowicz III, 45, who also lives in Wading River.

Bendzlowicz's wife said Saturday her husband owns the plane but was not involved in the accident, although she declined to elaborate.

"He was not in the plane," said Sharon Bendzlowicz, 43.

Jean A. Elliott, 74, lives on the same street as Peter Bendzlowicz Jr. "I knew he was a pilot for years, " Elliott said.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigator was examining the remains of the aircraft and studying any communications the pilot may have had before the plane went down, said agency spokesman Keith Holloway.

The investigator is expected to remain on the scene through the weekend, and a preliminary report could be released next week, Holloway said.