MYFOXNY.COM -
An investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board was at the scene Monday of a deadly small plane crash on Long Island.
Two people were killed and one was listed in critical condition after the plane crashed into a residential neighborhood Sunday morning.
A final report on the cause of the accident could take up to a year. A preliminary investigation should take about a week.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials confirmed there were three people on board the blue Socata TB10 and the crash took place one mile north of the Brookhaven Airport near a residential area. The impact from the crash caused a fire.
The pilot appeared to pull the nose of the aircraft above a house before smashing into a residential street, according to a witness report provided Monday to an investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Witnesses from the neighborhood where the crash took place say 61-year-old Erik Unhjem and his wife Jane Unhjem, 60, of Goshen, New York were on board and were taken by EMS to Stony Brook University Medical Center.
David J. McElroy, 53, of Orient died at the scene of the crash while Jane Unhjem died Sunday night at the hospital. Erik Unhjem is fighting for his life is listed in critical condition.
Two of the three people on board were licensed pilots.
"It's yet to be determined who was sitting in which seat, who was manipulating flight controls, and we may never know the answer to that," said Brian Rayner of the NTSB.
According to one witness who heard the plane fly overhead, he could tell it was in trouble. The plane came down and the witness was afraid it was going to go into his house.
"It actually descended below the height of his one story house," Rayner said. "Prior to striking the house the airplane pitched up and struck the tree."
Residents were shaken by the sound and by what had happened.
There was a loss of life, but the families living here are grateful that no one on the ground was hit, especially the children who usually play in this street.
There's not much left of the small private plane that was registered to a man from Orlando. The plane crashed moments after leaving Brookhaven Airport around noon Sunday.
The plane hit a dumpster a homeowner had rented for construction debris flew into the trees and then it landed upside down in flames right on Helen Avenue in North Shirley, barely 100 feet from a house.
Erik Uhnjem
