Instructor, Two Others Made It To Shore

A Piper PA-28 with a flight instructor and three others on board went down Sunday in the water off the coast of Long Island. Three of those on board are accounted for, but one remains missing.

Television station WNBC reports that the missing person is 25-year-old Gerson Salmon-Negron of Queens, NY. Authorities have said that the search has been shifted form possible rescue to a recovery effort.

The plane went down in Port Jefferson Harbor about 11 p.m. Saturday, according to authorities. The plane was being flown by student pilot Austricio Ramirez, 25, of the Bronx, NY when the plane encountered engine problems. Ramirez turned the plane back over to instructor Nelson Gomez, 36, of Queens, who executed the water landing. All four reportedly got out of the plane, but only Ramirez, Gomez, and  a fourth person on board, 25-year-old Wady Perez, also from Queens, were rescued by Suffolk County police.

But Salmon-Negron was not with the group. One of the survivors was reportedly wearing a life jack and near unconsciousness when police paddling kayaks they had taken from houses near the water arrived at the scene.

The four had departed from Fitchburg, MA en route to Republic Airport in Farmingdale, NY when the plane went down.

The Coast Guard searched for Salmon-Negron for about 18 hours covering 90 square miles of water before suspending the effort. Police boats and divers continued the search for his body through Monday.

(Image from file. Not accident airplane)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov