Seaplane makes hard landing in New York’s East River

A seaplane carrying eight people made a hard landing in New York City’s East River on Sunday, prompting a fire department response, injuring two people and triggering a federal investigation.

The New York City Fire Department said crews responded at about 12:01 p.m. to reports of a plane down in the water off the marina at East 23rd Street and the FDR Drive in Manhattan. The aircraft remained upright after the landing and was later towed back to the dock, FDNY officials said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a Kodiak 100 seaplane and that the pilot made a hard landing in the East River near Brooklyn at about noon local time on July 5, causing a wing strut to snap. A wing strut is a sturdy support that connects an aircraft’s wing to its main body and helps hold the wing up. The FAA said it is investigating and is expected to post a preliminary accident report this week.

The Guardian reported that the FAA said air traffic control was not providing services to the aircraft at the time.

At least eight people were removed from the plane by FDNY units. The New York Police Department said two people were being evaluated for minor injuries, though at least one refused medical attention. WABC reported that two passengers received treatment for minor injuries.

Video from inside the plane showed the aircraft landing with the Empire State Building in view before a series of bumps and the pilot calling for a mayday. CBS News published a recording of a radio transmission from the moment a New York police helicopter responded to the rough landing.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday – we have a plane down on the water,” the pilot can be heard saying in the recording. “We have a plane down on the water.”

Passenger Khloe Todd, 16, told CBS News that the landing quickly became frightening.

“The plane was already tilted. It was just insane,” Todd said. “I thought we were going to go down and drown. I thought we weren’t going to make it.”

Todd said the plane had touched the water, rose again and then came down hard.

“When we were coming down on the plane we [glided] on the water and then we came back up and then we did a turn on the water and went back down and all you hear is a bump, like a big bump,” she said.

Her 75-year-old grandmother said it was her third flight on that type of seaplane and that she had never had a problem before. WABC identified one of the injured passengers as 75-year-old Ada Todd and reported that she said from the hospital she remained “in shock, in lots of pain, but happy to be alive.”

The seaplane had taken off from East Hampton earlier in the day, according to CBS News. WABC also reported that the aircraft was coming from East Hampton, a town on Long Island.

Images shared on social media showed a white plane leaning to one side with the tip of its left wing in the water as a helicopter circled overhead, The Guardian reported.

Runner Jack Gonzalez told CBS News he sees several seaplanes landing on the river each hour on Sundays.

“I’m not really surprised. It’s bound to happen. It just seems a little more haphazard,” Gonzalez said. “Sometimes they’ll hit the water, then come back up, then come back down.”

The incident came three weeks after another seaplane went down in the East River. On June 13, the FDNY took a pilot and one passenger onto a boat after their plane went down near Whitestone, Queens. No injuries were reported in that incident.