A Manhattan family and teenage friend aboard a small private plane destined for Montauk died this afternoon when their aircraft suddenly crashed while trying to make an emergency landing, authorities said.
Keith Weiner, 63, his wife, Lisa, their 14-year-old daughter Isabelle, and her friend Lucy Walsh, also 14, were killed in the tragic accident this afternoon in Westchester County.
Their Cessna 210 plane turned back minutes after it took off from White Plains and was making a loop when it crashed, landing in a watershed, according to police sources and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The plane went down short of Runway 16 and crashed in the wood near the hamlet of Armonk, FAA spokeswoman Holly Baker said.
The six-seat, single-engine plane reported to a Westchester County airport control tower that it had to make an emergency landing just a minute after it took off at 1:04 p.m.
“Yes we are declaring an emergency,” radioed the pilot, according to taped transmissions.
“We can’t go to the tower,” he radioed in his last transmission at 1:06 p.m.
The plane crashed around 1:30 p.m. in a wooded area behind the MBIA Insurance office park. An office worker said he saw smoke coming out of the woods and called 911.