NTSB: Controller Sent Pilot In Fatal Hicksville Plane Crash To Runway That Doesn't Exist
MINEOLA, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A preliminary accident report indicates a pilot killed when his plane crashed at a railroad crossing this month on Long Island had been directed by an air traffic controller to a landing strip that no longer exists at a closed airport.
Fifty-nine-year-old pilot Joseph Milo, of Westhampton Beach, was killed Aug. 16 when his single-engine aircraft hit the Long Island Rail Road tracks at South Oyster Bay Road in Hicksville. A passenger was injured.
The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report issued Monday said Milo had told air traffic controllers that his Beech C35 plane was "having a little bit of a problem.''
The controller then told the pilot there was a "Bethpage strip'' at an airport closed decades ago at the site of a former military defense contractor.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration declined to comment.
The plane had left Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach and was heading to Morristown, New Jersey at the time of the crash, officials said.
There were no reports of anyone on the ground being injured, but LIRR service on the Ronkonkoma Branch was halted between Hicksville and Ronkonkoma for several hours.
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