New York Army National Guard troops are being praised as heroes after rescuing the pilot from a plane crash that killed two people on Long Island on Sunday.
The soldiers happened to be conducting a sling-load training exercise near Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach when they were suddenly dispatched to the crash site, according to Guard officials.
Two passengers were killed in the crash, but the plane's pilot, 61-year-old Richard Rosenthal, was evacuated to the hospital in critical condition and is expected to survive.
"If it wasn't for their quick response and that really heroic action in a burning airplane, we would have three fatalities instead of two," said Dan Boggs, lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.
The incident began when Rosenthal's Navion F aircraft crashed into trees at the airport around 11:40 am, according to the New York Times. The plane had been practicing landings and crashed in the woods near an intersection of the airports two runways.
Company B, 3rd Battalion 142nd Aviation, on board a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, was approaching the airport, located near the eastern tip of Long Island, to conduct the sling-load training exercise. They were two miles from the airport when the control tower radioed the pilots, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Joseph McCarthy and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Meghan Polis, advising them of the crash.
Warrant Officers Christopher Hansen and Aaron Pacholk, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Ronald Ramirez, and Sgt. Yaanique Scott leaped from the helicopter and ran to the crash with fire extinguishers.
"The aircraft was in flames, and [Rosenthal)] was trying to get out," said Pacholk. "Rosenthal held up two fingers to indicate that there were two other victims inside," he said.
McCarthy and Scott are both New York City firefighters.
The fire was getting worse as the soldiers arrived to the crash site. Rosenthal was trying to climb out of the left side of the plane, but heat and smoke made it difficult for the responding soldiers to approach. Scott, followed by Ramirez, climbed up the wing to save Rosenthal, while other focused on extinguishing the fire. Scott was able to create a gap in the canopy of the plane that was trapping Rosenthal and he was able to climb out.
They got Rosenthal away from the fire and backed away from the crash site as the fire was getting worse. The other two passengers were unresponsive. A rescue crew from Gabreski Air National Guard Base, which is adjacent to the airport, arrived to aid Rosenthal, along with other emergency responders.
"We were in the right place, at the right time, with the right crew, said McCarthy, of Orangeburg, N.Y. "As Guardsmen, we train for situations like this, and that day everything came together."
