Passenger of plane crash in New York contacted family before crash

One of two people who died after the plane encountered mechanical problems and crashed in New York on January 19 in the eveningcontacted his loved ones in the last minutes of his life. Writes about it CNN.

Pilot Boruch Taub and passenger Benjamin "Ben" Chafetz died after their plane took off from JFK International Airport and crashed near Westchester Airport north of New York City while attempting an emergency landing.

A Beechcraft single-engine aircraft en route to Cuyahoga County Airport near Cleveland, Ohio, failed after takeoff. The pilot reported to air traffic control that the aircraft had a "dead cylinder" and the oil pressure was dropping.

“The pilot realized that he only had a few minutes to try and land the plane safely. But he couldn't do it," said Westchester County Executive George Latimer.

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While the plane was trying to reach the landing site, Chafetz sent text messages to the family: he expressed his love to them and asked them to pray. Chafetz spoke to his wife during the last minutes of the flight and said goodbye to her, he said.

According to Latimer, Taub and Chafetz are members of the Orthodox Jewish community in Ohio. Rabbi Nissim Abrin of Bais Avrohom comforts the community over their tragic loss.

“I think these messages really reflected what was most important to him, and that was the love he had for his family,” Abrin said. “We have lost two of our best — wonderful husbands, fathers, friends, people, pillars of our community, people who would drop their jobs at any moment to help someone else.”

The plane encountered a problem after takeoff

Before the crash, the pilot and air traffic control were talking about problems on board the plane, according to an audio recording of the incident from LiveATC.net.

“We are going to declare a state of emergency. We're losing oil pressure," pilot Taub can be heard talking to the air traffic controller.

When the controller asks Taub if there is engine power, the pilot replies, "No, the engine is shutting off."

Moments later, Taub says "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday", pointing to the distress call.

When the controller tried to give Taub instructions on how to make a safe landing on the runway at Westchester Airport, the pilot asks for more instructions.

"I can't see anything," Taub said.

The controller continues to direct the pilot to the free runway. At some point, the controller says that communication with the radar is lost, and the pilot stopped responding.

Officials later discovered that the plane had crashed about a mile (1,6 km) from Westchester Airport, according to preliminary findings from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The bodies were properly examined and sent for burial in Ohio, Latimer said.

The accident is being investigated by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.