WESTHAMPTON BEACH, N.Y. — A small private plane carrying three people crashed into the ocean off the coast of Long Island on Saturday, officials said.
One body was recovered following the 11 a.m. crash of a twin-engine Piper PA-34 about a mile off of Quogue, in the Hamptons.
Agencies including the U.S. Coast Guard, the New York Air National Guard and the Suffolk County sheriff’s office responded to the crash.
"It's still a search and recovery at this point," Quogue Village Police Chief Christopher Isola said at a news conference late Saturday afternoon, according to Newsday. "The Coast Guard along with other marine assets will continue in that effort."
The cause of the crash was not known, Isola said. The identity of the victim who was found was not immediately determined.
Officials said people on the beach reported the plane sputtering before it crashed.
John Morgan, of Quogue, told Newsday that his son Tyler Morgan, 24, was playing golf with friends when he saw the plane go down.
"They saw it in the air, and they just saw it come down," said John Morgan, who went to the beach after the crash and saw several search boats on the water.
Alisa Sisic, a spokeswoman for the Connecticut Airport Authority, said the plane left Connecticut's Waterbury-Oxford Airport Saturday morning, landed at Danbury Municipal Airport and then took off again.
RELATED
The crash was the third fatal crash involving a small plane on Long Island this year.
A pilot died May 30 when his vintage plane went down in a wooded area.
Four people were killed on June 2 when a twin-engine Piper Navajo crashed off Amagansett during a storm.
