5 days ago
Miracle on the Long Island Sound: Father, daughter safe after plane lands just off coast of New Haven
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — A cockpit emergency over the waters of Long Island sound ended with a pilot's quick thinking this weekend.
The pilot is credited with saving himself and his young passenger. Experts say that this could've ended much worse.
2 rescued after plane crashes into the Long Island Sound
With his teenage daughter, a pilot took off from Sikorsky Airport in Stratford on Sunday to an undisclosed location when something went wrong in the cockpit. The plane was just eight miles from Tweed Airport.
'I'm not sure of his level of training, but his calmness and ability to react to the incident and call for help, and give as much detail as he could in terms of his location and what was occurring made a difference,' Branford Deputy Fire Chief Mike Stackpole said.
The pilot, identified as J. Scott Edwards of Newtown, was flying a piper 32 Cherokee plane and thought fast as the plane plunged toward the water.
Once the pilot was able to ditch the plane into the water, he was able to get himself and his daughter into the water with life jackets on — once he did that, he took out his phone and called 911 for help.
The Coast Guard and Branford Fire Department raced to the plane that's submerging by the second. They say that timing was critical.
'Depending on the weather and how he landed the plane, his training, if he wasn't able to do a water landing safely…it could have ended differently,' Stackpole said.
Crews were working today to get an exact location of the plane and then that the spot gets marked. No word yet when the wreckage gets pulled.
Both the father and the daughter walked away with minor injuries we're told. No word yet on what went wrong with the plane. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating.
Watch the full story above.
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