The Village
TIMES HERALD STONY BROOK • OLD FIELD • STRONG’S NECK • SETAUKET • EAST SETAUKET • SOUTH SETAUKET • POQUOT T February 25, 2016
Volume 40, No. 52
BRIDGES
631-9414300
A Resource Guide Featuring Many of the Healthcare Services Provided to the Community by Stony Brook Medicine
Anniversary
$1.00
Times Beacon RecoRd neWs media • February 25, 2016
SBU & Local Business Resource Guide INSIDE
Plane crashes into harbor Police still searching for 23-year-old man BY PHIL CORSO
Trust taking steps for future of 25A
Group to host community forum
PAGE A3
Police are combing through the region where Port Jefferson Harbor and Setauket Harbor meet, near Poquott, after a small plane crashed there late Saturday night, authorities said. The small plane, which police said was a Piper PA-28 carrying four people, went down shortly after 11 p.m. near the vicinity of 108 Van Brunt Manor Rd., Poquott Mayor Dee Parrish said. An extensive response from emergency personnel followed, during which three people were recovered from the water — but one remained missing, and that search was ongoing through the beginning of this week, officials said. Police said on Sunday that a student pilot, 25-year-old Bronx resident Austricio Ramirez was flying the plane when the problems arose and turned the controls over to his instructor, 36-year-old Queens resident Nelson Gomez, who landed the plane in the harbor. All the passengers in the four-seater plane were able to exit into the water, after which
Photos from Margo Arceri
Top, emergency responders prepare to remove the airplane from the harbor. Above, divers with the Suffolk County Police Department pursue the aircraft as the missing person search continued.
Ramirez, Nelson and passenger Wady Perez, a 25-year-old from Queens, were rescued by police. But Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini said the search and rescue operation remained in effect for one missing person, who was identified as 23-year-old Queens resident Gerson Salmon-Negron, with assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard. “We’re going to do everything we can to find that individual,” he said. The three people pulled from
the water were being treated at Stony Brook University Hospital, officials said. They have since been released. Peter Stubberfield of Poquott said he and his wife heard the plane flying immediately above their house, off the harbor, Saturday night immediately followed by the sound of emergency vehicles. “Within minutes of hearing the plane, there were about 15 to 20 emergency vehicles right in front of our private drive,” he said. “There were two helicop-
ters flying around continually, so we assumed something was going on in the water.” Margo Arceri, who lives on the Strong’s Neck side of the water where the plane crashed, said she and her neighbors jumped into action as soon as they noticed emergency vehicles making their way into the small North Shore community. Upon stepping outside Saturday night, Arceri said she watched emergency personnel pull surCRASH continued on page A6