Pilot heard calling ‘mayday’ before fatal Long Island plane crash

Chilling audio captured the final moments of a small plane that crashed on Long Island — as the pilot frantically declared an emergency with an engine fire shortly before plummeting to the ground, killing a passenger and critically injuring the others onboard.

The single-engine Piper PA-28 Cherokee was caught in dramatic Ring video erupting in a ball of flames when it crashed near Fifth Street and North Wellwood Avenue in Lindenhurst at about 3 p.m. Sunday.

Moments earlier, the pilot announced “smoke in the cockpit, immediate landing,” according to audio obtained by LiveATC.net.

“Roger, continue the straight-in and I’ll have you cleared to land,” the controller replies.

A few moments later, the pilot declares, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Engine fire! Mayday! Mayday!”

The controller advises the pilot that Runway 32 is two miles straight ahead.

“No one else call inbound to Republic Tower, emergency in progress,” the controller says as he directs other planes to clear the area.

But the disaster becomes apparent in the next transmission.

“Tower, there’s a plume of smoke coming about a mile from the end of the runway on final,” another pilot is heard saying.

“I see the smoke but the plane is completely destroyed and on fire,” he adds.

The dead passenger has been identified as Roma Gupta, 63, whose daughter, 33-year-old Reeva, suffered critical injuries and was hospitalized at Stony Brook Hospital with third-degree burns, WNBC reported.

Reeva is a physician’s assistant in the Mount Sinai system, according to the outlet.  

The pilot has been identified as Fayzul Chowdhury, 23, of the Bronx, who also remains in critical condition at the hospital, News 12 New Jersey reported.

“He is commercially rated, he also has an instrument rating and was certified as a flight instructor,” Oleh Dekajlo, the attorney for the plane’s owner, the Danny Waizman Flight School, told the outlet.

“It was a demonstration flight, an introductory flight to see if people are interested so it’s not considered an actual flight lesson but they received a promotional coupon from Groupon and that’s how they found the flight school,” Dekajlo told WNBC.

He said the plane had recently been inspected.

“There was a 100-hour inspection at the end of January and approximately a week ago there was a 50-hour inspection,” he told News 12.

Chowdhury declared the emergency while returning to Republic Airport in Farmingdale, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Suffolk County police said the plane had taken off from the same airport at 2:18 p.m.

No injuries were reported on the ground and no homes were damaged in the accident.

Michael Canders, aviation director of Farmingdale State College, said pilots are trained to handle smoke in the cockpit or an engine fire.

He told the news outlet that such emergencies require an immediate landing, but that flying at slow speeds can result in a stall.

“So, you are near what is potentially or near the stall speeds, so if you get distracted at that low altitude, it’s very important that the pilot not lose that situational awareness, not get too slow and stop flying,” Canders told News 12.

A GoFundMe account, which raised more than $117,000 as of Tuesday afternoon, said: “Reeva Gupta and her mother Roma had a beautiful day planned together. To help fulfill a long-standing wish of theirs, they booked a flight lesson in Long Island.”

It said Reeva “faces a long, painful recovery.”

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash.