A Westmeath man and a friend were both killed off Long Island, New York last weekend, when the private plane he was flying in a charity event lost power and crashed into the sea.
Cyril McLavin (51 ), originally from Dysart, and a past pupil of St Mary’s CBS in Mullingar, and Athlone Institute of Technology, was killed when his private plane spun out of control and plunged into the sea near Fire Island shortly after takeoff around 3pm last Sunday, October 21.
According to local police, the red and white, four-seater, Globe Swift private plane had just taken off from Spadaro Airport in East Moriches, Suffolk County, New York.
The crash happened at the east end of Fire Island where the plane sank in about 15 to 20 feet of water.
Mr McLavin, who had lived in nearby Fresh Meadows for a number of years, was accompanied on the fateful flight by a friend Dr Andrew Messana, 72, of Bayside, and their two bodies were recovered just after 11pm that night.
Susan Spadaro, the owner of the airport, said that the two men had spent the Sunday giving local kids plane rides as part of a charity event at Brookhaven Airport, just seven miles away.
“The only reason they took the plane out was to help at the event,” Spadaro told the NY Post.
“We had heroes for lunch, and then they took off. A few minutes later, they were gone.”
“They were great guys and loved to fly,” she added.
A witness who noticed the plane in distress said he heard a loud noise.
“You could see he was in panic mode because the motor was sputtering and he was losing the motor,” the witness told CBS News.
The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation into what caused the single-engine plane to crash.
