‘God was co-pilot’
WALLKILL, NY — A pilot and three passengers miraculously survived a terrifying crash when their small plane lost engine power after takeoff and plummeted into the front yard of a house.
“I think God was their co-pilot,” Wayne Dunnigan, 51, said yesterday outside his Ulster County home, where the wrecked single-engine Cessna 172N remained on the lawn.
The aircraft, piloted by Robert “Butch” Schmidt of Bay Shore, LI, and carrying three Long Island friends, crashed about 9:45 p.m. Thursday.
Two of the passengers were trapped and had to be pulled out by rescuers.
“It was a real mess,” he said of the debris. “It’s a miracle they’re alive.”
Dunnigan said his barking dog alerted him something was wrong.
“I opened the door and I saw a plane in the front yard and I thought, ‘You gotta be kidding me,’ ” he said.
Schmidt, 48, and John Brienza, 51, were airlifted to Westchester Medical Center. Robert Kroll, 42, and Anthony Errera, 31, were treated at St. Francis in Poughkeepsie.
Brienza told family members that the plane’s engine had stalled on takeoff, a relative said.
“It could have been a lot worse for those people,” Dunnigan said. “And it could have been a lot worse for us inside.”
