The search has resumed this morning for a small plane that may have gone down in the woods over Rockland County, NY. The Federal Aviation Administration Command Control Center on Long Island reported a small plane disappearing from its scope – or it flew below 700 feet – at approximately 6:09 p.m. on Monday evening in the area near Harriman.
Police and fire crews are heading back out to Harriman State Park in Haverstraw, looking for any signs of the wreckage. State and county helicopters are concentrating on a six square mile area in Haverstraw.
The choppers, equipped with infrared and night vision, searched rugged terrain around Horse Chock Mountain near Harriman State Park until about 1:30 a.m. Rescue crews used ATVs to search nearby terrain.
Late Monday evening, several witnesses reported seeing a plume of smoke descending down in the sky behind the mountain.
“It may have cleared the mountain. We don’t know,” said Hillcrest Fire Chief Kim Weppler. “The specifics right now are vague whether the plane actually did make impact. All we have now is a plane that looked like he was coming down or spiraling down or coming down into the mountain range and leaving a trail of smoke.”
Time and darkness were both factors in the search on Monday night. Because of the location six separate agencies were coordinating on the ground, all feeding information to the eyes in the sky.
Compounding the mystery, neither the FAA or local airports have had any reports of a missing plane.
{CBS2-HD/Matzav.com Newscenter}
