A college student from Queens is missing after a small plane carrying him and three other New Yorkers made an emergency landing in the frigid Long Island Sound, authorities said Sunday.
A student pilot was at the controls of the Piper Archer four-seater when it began experiencing engine trouble Saturday night, authorities said. The instructor quickly took over, but was forced to land the plane in Setauket Harbor, about 60 miles east of New York City, around 11:05 p.m., officials said.
The student pilot, Austricio Ramirez, the instructor, Nelson Gomez, and their passengers, Wady Perez and Gerson Salmon-Negron, were able to escape the wreckage in the dark water — but chaos soon ensued, authorities said.
Suffolk County Police Officer Christopher Draskin told The Post that he and other cops heard screaming from where they were onshore and were trying to figure out what to do when they “miraculously happened upon three kayaks” nearby.
They paddled out into the middle of the channel and found two of the men frantically treading water and yelling. Only one of them was wearing a life jacket.
The officers were unable to pull the two men into their kayaks and instead had to tow them to shore through the cold water.
The third rescued man was later found swimming toward shore and rescued.
But Salmon-Negron, 23, a CCNY student, remains missing, authorities said.
The Coast Guard helped search for the Elmhurst man for 18 hours after the crash, covering 90 square miles, before they pulled out Sunday. They didn’t say why they called off their search.
Two police departments and a dive team continued to scour the harbor.
“The water’s very cold, but we always hope for the best,” Draskin said.
The men had departed from Fitchburg, Mass., and were en route to Republic Airport in Farmingdale when they lost power.
Salmon-Negron is set to graduate from CUNY with a degree in business administration this June, said a woman who identified herself as a family friend to The Post. His family declined to comment.
Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
Ramirez, of The Bronx, and Gomez and Perez, of Queens, were released from Stony Brook Hospital on Sunday, authorities said.
Sunday’s search wrapped up around 7 p.m., and will recommence at 9 a.m. Monday, cops said.