QUEENS — Investigators are still searching the ocean off of Breezy Point after a plane crashed there Wednesday night, killing the only person on board, police said.
PIlot Brad McGee, of Maine, was flying the 26-foot Cirrus SR22 propeller plane traveling from Philadelphia to New Hampshire when it slammed into the ocean near Beach 216th Street at about 7:33 p.m., an NYPD spokesman said. The identity of the pilot was confirmed by his business partner, John Callaghan.
The NYPD's harbor unit combed the debris field in the ocean about a mile and a half off Breezy Point and found him late Wednesday night, police said.
McGeewas pronounced dead on scene.
Investigators with the NTSB and NYPD examine the wreckage from the small airplane that crashed into the ocean off Breezy Point on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015. (DNAinfo/Katie Honan)
Most of the plane had been recovered Thursday afternoon and brought to Riis Landing at Fort Tilden, where a National Transportation Safety Board investigator was examining the parts.
NYPD divers were still out in the ocean to find additional pieces of the plane, according to Heidi Moats, an air safety investigator with the NTSB.
"Overall we will be looking at the man, the machine and the environment in this investigation," she said.
It wasn't immediately clear what time the aircraft took off from Philadelphia on Wednesday, she said. They were also working with the FAA to determine his flight path.
A more official report is expected to be released by the NTSB in 10 days, Moats said.
