Active search and rescue continues after the crash of a Hamptons aircraft

QUOGUE, NY – The desperate attempt to locate survivors continues as part of an "active search and rescue" after the fall of a small plane into the Atlantic Ocean at south of Quogue on Saturday, officials said.

A body has been found and is now in the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's office, the US Coast Guard said. no information has yet been published on the identity of the person. Two others were on board the plane, said the USCG.

Steve Strohmaier, US Coast Guard officer at Shinnecock US Station, said Saturday night: "We are still looking for two more people and divers are currently using sonar to find the fuselage of the aircraft." fuselage was not found. "

While searches have stopped overnight, diving operations will resume in the morning, he said. However, the USCG Cutter "Bonito", an 87-foot patrol boat, will remain on site overnight – the only USCG asset performing night searches. In addition, Strohmaier said, the Southampton City police will set up a lookout on the beach, looking for the two missing and any debris likely to wash on the shore.

"This remains an active case and we will reevaluate in the morning," he said.

The flight came from Danbury, CT, confirmed the Coast Guard.

Rodion Mazin, Jr. Grade of the USCG, confirmed Saturday that one body had been found and that searches were continuing for two more. "They are still looking," he says.

Mazin said that until now, the fuselage of the aircraft had not been found, but only debris, and added that the Coast Guard would remain on the scene all night to help the Federal Aviation Administration to attempt to determine the cause of the accident. Residents and divers were on the scene Saturday to try to locate the fuselage.

Witnesses at the scene told the FAA that the plane was broken in the air, but that's only speculation, he said, because "we do not We have not seen it ourselves.

According to the USCG, at 1110, Southampton Police informed the observers at Sector Long Island Sound that a twin-engine Piper PA-34 had crashed into the water about one kilometer south of Quogue.

Observers then sent a crew from Shinnecock Station aboard a 47 'rescue boat, the USCG announced.

A debris field and oil chips were located near the scene of the accident reported

The Suffolk County Navy, the Bay Constables, a Commercial Rescue Team – which plans to fire divers – as well as numerous crews from the New York National Air Guard participate in the search.

A crew from Cape Cod Air Base should be dispatched to take up the National Air Guard, the USCG announced.

It's the second time, in recent months, that a small plane is killing the Hamptons: in June, a crash on Amagansett cost the lives of Ben and Bonnie Krupinski, their grandson William Maerov and driver Jon Dollard broke.

Photo file patch.

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