By NAN Contributor
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Oct. 16, 2018: A plane that crashed in the Hamptons over the weekend killing three, including the Guyana-born flight instructor, was actually heading to South Carolina.
The twin-engine plane was bound for Charleston, South Carolina when it broke apart and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island in New York late Saturday morning, according to Newsday.
Among the victims was 41-year-old Munidat “Raj” Persaud, a Guyanese immigrant who lived in Waterbury, Connecticut and ran a flight school.
Family members told Channel 3 that Persaud ran the Oxford Flight Training school and frequently flew out of Waterbury-Oxford Airport in Oxford and Danbury Airport.
His body was recovered along with two others off the coast of New York.
Persaud’s family said he’s left behind two daughters.
Persaud had more than 20 years of experience as a pilot and had been running the school for the last 14 years. In August 2004, Persaud, started teaching others how to fly. On the company’s website, it says Persaud was a former airline flight engineer who worked for several airlines, including Pan American World Airways, as a technical representative and avionics tech.
He was also a commercial pilot and FAA certified maintenance inspector and technician with a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Aeronautical Engineering Technology from the college of Aeronautics.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it is still looking for the exact cause of the crash.
Persaud owned a dozen other planes, the New York Times reported, citing the Federal Aviation Authority. Two of his other planes, the Times noted, have been involved in crashes in recent years. Earlier this year a similar plane owned by Persaud crashed into a mountain in Vermont. The newspaper said a preliminary accident report did not find any mechanical issues with the plane, but there was bad weather at the time. One person died in the crash.
In 2016, a student pilot flying one of Persaud’s planes missed a runway and crashed, the Times reported. In that case, the student pilot was injured, the newspaper said.
