Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Pilot found in plane's wreckage
A psychiatrist with the Kiryas Joel School District in Orange County died when the small plane he was piloting crashed Sunday night near a Vermont airport.
The body of Chaim Weiss, 58, of Spring Valley, Rockland County, was removed from the site about 12:45 p.m. Monday, according to Bennington Police Chief Richard Gauthier.
The four-seat Cessna 172 crashed about a mile and a half west of the William H. Morse State Airport.
Weiss was a prominent psychiatrist and worked for the Kiryas Joel Village Union Free School District in Monroe, Orange County, officials there confirmed.
The school's superintendent was not immediately available for comment.
Kiryas Joel is a village in the town of Monroe in which the majority of residents are Hasidic Jews who strictly observe the Torah and its commandments.
Weiss told his family Sunday that he was going for a short flight, Gauthier said. The family said they did not know why Weiss would have flown to Vermont.
Reached at home, Weiss' family refused to comment to a reporter.
The pilot's errors include taking the wrong approach to the airport, in the dark and turning the wrong way, sending the plane into the mountain, Gauthier said.
''We have to also check to see if he had some medical issue,'' Gauthier said. An autopsy is planned.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration Web site, Weiss received his pilot's license in 2005.
The FAA will leave the plane in the woods for several days as the investigation continues.
Guy Rouelle, lead investigator for the Vermont Transportation Authority, said witnesses on Sunday night reported a loud crash. No one else was aboard the plane, he said.
The plane is owned by Sky Training of West Milford, N.J. A woman who answered the phone at Sky Training did not identify herself and referred all questions to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The crash was on Whipstock Mountain in an area of dense vegetation below the summit, said Joe Hayes, chief of the Bennington Rural Fire Department.
The plane is near an area known as Guitar Patch for the distinctive pine tree-filled feature that looks like a guitar on the side of the mountain, according to a neighbor.
Roland Smith, who heard the crash from his nearby property, said he was able to reach the plane Monday morning. He said it was wrapped around a tree on state land and that the pilot was dead.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=857399&category=REGION
The body of Chaim Weiss, 58, of Spring Valley, Rockland County, was removed from the site about 12:45 p.m. Monday, according to Bennington Police Chief Richard Gauthier.
The four-seat Cessna 172 crashed about a mile and a half west of the William H. Morse State Airport.
Weiss was a prominent psychiatrist and worked for the Kiryas Joel Village Union Free School District in Monroe, Orange County, officials there confirmed.
The school's superintendent was not immediately available for comment.
Kiryas Joel is a village in the town of Monroe in which the majority of residents are Hasidic Jews who strictly observe the Torah and its commandments.
Weiss told his family Sunday that he was going for a short flight, Gauthier said. The family said they did not know why Weiss would have flown to Vermont.
Reached at home, Weiss' family refused to comment to a reporter.
The pilot's errors include taking the wrong approach to the airport, in the dark and turning the wrong way, sending the plane into the mountain, Gauthier said.
''We have to also check to see if he had some medical issue,'' Gauthier said. An autopsy is planned.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration Web site, Weiss received his pilot's license in 2005.
The FAA will leave the plane in the woods for several days as the investigation continues.
Guy Rouelle, lead investigator for the Vermont Transportation Authority, said witnesses on Sunday night reported a loud crash. No one else was aboard the plane, he said.
The plane is owned by Sky Training of West Milford, N.J. A woman who answered the phone at Sky Training did not identify herself and referred all questions to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The crash was on Whipstock Mountain in an area of dense vegetation below the summit, said Joe Hayes, chief of the Bennington Rural Fire Department.
The plane is near an area known as Guitar Patch for the distinctive pine tree-filled feature that looks like a guitar on the side of the mountain, according to a neighbor.
Roland Smith, who heard the crash from his nearby property, said he was able to reach the plane Monday morning. He said it was wrapped around a tree on state land and that the pilot was dead.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=857399&category=REGION
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