SEPTEMBER 4, 2015, 10:07 AM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015, 12:26 AM
BY STEFANIE DAZIO
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
The pilot who crash-landed a small plane into a Cresskill recreational field desperately searched for a safe place to land, passing by two other fields because they were filled with people before he finally made a dead-engine touchdown behind a local swim club, authorities said.
The pilot, Jack Rosenberg of Spring Valley, N.Y., and Erik Pearson were on a routine patrol for the Coast Guard Auxiliary over the Hudson River when the engine faltered.
When Rosenberg couldn’t make it to Teterboro Airport with his sputtering engine, he tried to make an emergency landing in Tenafly but decided against that because the field was full of people, Cresskill Police Chief Ed Wrixon said.
After finding a Cresskill baseball field occupied, the pilot crashed near Regan Field behind the Cresskill Swim Club late Thursday afternoon just hours before youth sports teams were due to practice.
