NTSB: Pilot In NY Crash Not Trained For Aerobatics
KINGSTON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A preliminary report says a pilot called friends to an airport in upstate New York and then did aerobatics he wasn't trained for before plunging to his death in the Hudson River last week.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Michael Faraldi called friends Feb. 26 about an hour before he arrived over Kingston-Ulster Airport, midway between Albany and New York City.
Witnesses say Faraldi put the vintage military jet into a roll or barrel roll, a corkscrew-like maneuver that rotates the plane completely around its axis. Then he did a second low pass before pulling up in a left turn that ended with the plane nosing over in a steep drop into the river.
The 38-year-old Germantown podiatrist had logged about 1,200 hours flying, but only about 21 in the jet. His wife told investigators he hadn't trained in aerobatics.
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