A small plane on a U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary patrol crash-landed in the borough late Thursday afternoon, leaving two people seriously injured, officials said. YWN has confirmed that the pilot of the plane is a longtime volunteer of Chaverim of Rockland, and a member of the Chesed Shel Emmes Organization. He is currently in surgery – and his name for Tehillim is Yaakov Yosef ben Leah Rochel.

The crash was reported near the Cresskill Swim Club, not far from an athletic field.

The plane was occupied by two people who were on a routine patrol of the Hudson River as part of a U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary mission, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said Thursday. Auxiliary members are volunteers working on behalf of the Coast Guard.

Officials confirmed that two people on the Cessna suffered serious injuries and were taken to Hackensack University Medical Center. Further information on their conditions was not immediately released.

Both occupants of the plane were alert and conscious when first responders arrived, according to Bergen County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Anthony Cureton.

The plane was a single engine 1978 Cessna Skyhawk according to registration records.

The pilots were surveying the Hudson River when they encountered problems with the plane, Cresskill Police Chief Ed Wrixon said. They radioed air traffic controllers at LaGuardia Airport and had hoped to land in the river but instead came down in the field at around 4:45 p.m.

The two-seat plane came to rest under trees that separate the recreational field from a stream and an apartment complex.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)