Teacher, Student Pilot Uninjured After Helicopter Crash Lands On Long Island Street
COPIAGUE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A teacher and student pilot walked away unscathed after their helicopter crash landed in a residential area of Long Island.
The Robinson R22 helicopter attempted to make an emergency landing at Buena Vista Boulevard and East Alhambra Avenue in Copiague just before noon Wednesday after reporting engine problems, as reported by CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff.
Neighbors found the chopper on its side. They were amazed that the 26-year-old pilot and flight instructor, Joseph Lombardo, and his 27-year-old student, Ming Chen, weren’t injured.
Air traffic controllers knew there was trouble-from the Mayday Transmission southwest of Republic Airport in Farmingdale.
Witness Laura St. Angelo heard the helicopter motor sputtering and saw the aircraft coming down.
“It was petrifying,” she told WCBS 880’s Sophia Hall. “I heard crash, boom.”
“It’s a miracle it didn’t hit a house, a miracle that they both were able to get out alive, that men that were working on a house ducked when the helicopter came over them — they ran for it,” St. Angelo said.
The teacher was operating the helicopter at the time and many at the scene are calling him a hero.
“I did see his face with that fear and I would like to hug that man,” St. Angelo said. “I’m just so grateful that he’s alive, both of them.”
The helicopter is owned by Academy of Aviation. The company says the experienced instructor was returning from a two-hour lesson when mechanical problems shut down the engine. The pilot is being hailed a hero for managing to find a place where no one would get hurt.
No injuries were reported on the ground.
Not a bad effort
