NEWS

Son: South Salem man, wife on board downed plane

The 1971 Beechcraft Bonanza lost contact with Danbury Airport as it approached in bad weather Thursday.

Matt Spillane
mspillane@lohud.com

NORTH SALEM - Searchers have found human remains as well as debris, including a seat and wheels, from a small plane believed to have crashed into the Titicus Reservoir Thursday evening as it approached Danbury Airport, officials said Friday.

Two people are believed to have died in the crash. Late Friday night the Westchester County Medical Examiner's office said it had the remains of two people related to the plane crash but that the identities of the remains may not be confirmed until Saturday.

Eric Horsa of Ridgefield, Connecticut, identified the pilot on Friday as his father, Val Horsa, of South Salem. He said his stepmother, Taew Horsa, a native of Thailand, also was on board the 1971 Beechcraft Bonanza.

Val and Taew Horsa are believed to have been on board a plane that went down in North Salem Thursday afternoon.

He said his father and stepmother are fixtures at the Bangkok Thai Restaurant in Danbury, which they have owned since 1996.

The plane lost radar contact as it approached Danbury Airport about 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Eric Horsa, Val Horsa's only child, said the couple been on a short pleasure trip to Mississippi. They left on Sunday and were due to return back Thursday afternoon.

He said his father was an experienced pilot who had been flying since 1985, flying as far as the Bahamas on trips. He said his father wasn't the type to fly in particularly hazardous weather conditions, and was experienced dealing with a variety of weather, so he speculated something mechanical may have gone wrong with the plane.

"He was a great guy. Everybody loved him," Eric Horsa said. He said his father was "hard but fair" and "still had many good years left."

He called Taew Horsa a "wonderful woman" and said she treated him like he was her own son.

FlightAware, an online tracking service, said the plane had traveled from Danbury through Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky on Sunday before arriving that afternoon in Tunica, Mississippi — a town in the northwest part of the state known for its casinos. It left Tunica Thursday, stopping at the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport in Williamstown, West Virginia, for about half an hour before leaving for Danbury at 1:25 p.m. It had been due in to Danbury shortly before 4 p.m.

Mike Safranek, operations manager at the airport, said that the agency that coordinates air traffic in the greater New York City area handed the flight's tracking over to Danbury at about 3:45 p.m., but Danbury's tower never made contact with the plane after that and it never entered the airport's airspace.

When the plane failed to arrive, the airport immediately notified local emergency responders and then the Federal Aviation Administration, he said. The subsequent investigation determined the plane had last been on radar about 8.3 miles out from the airport, across the state line in the vicinity of the Titicus Reservoir.

That triggered a search by New York authorities that began in the rain and fog Thursday night.

Lt. Bill Flynn of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection was among the searchers out late Thursday night into Friday morning. At least four search boats and divers scoured the reservoir before the search was suspended shortly after 1 a.m. due to weather conditions. It resumed Friday morning.

Officials first spotted an oil sheen in the middle of the waterway Friday, then found the seat and wheels, and later additional small pieces of debris, according to DEP spokesman Adam Bosch. The tires were found south of the sheen, he said, while other debris was found to the north.

At 3:30 p.m. he told reporters that searchers had located "human remains," as well as a laptop and clothing from the plane. Representatives of the Westchester Medical Examiner's office were responding to the scene.

The reservoir is about 70 feet deep in the search area, he said.

Divers from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and New York State Police were using sonar Friday as part of their search for the wreckage. State Police said the response also included the Croton Falls Fire Department, Yorktown Heights Fire Department, and the Civil Air Patrol.

Bosch said the search would end at sundown Friday and resume Saturday. Once the plane is located and recovered, he said, the National Transportation Safety Board is expected to send representatives to investigate the circumstances of the crash.

Safranek, at the Danbury Airport, said the gloomy weather conditions Thursday had led to a requirement pilots travel under instrument flight rules.

"Some people are comfortable flying in those conditions," he said. "Some people, when it gets that bad out, would rather not go out."

More photos:Firefighters search for missing plane in Titicus Reservoir

The search for a missing plane continues Friday morning at the Titicus Reservoir.

Staff writers Mike D'Onofrio and Jane Lerner contributed information to this story. 

Matt Spillane can be reached by email at mspillane@lohud.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MattSpillane