East End Notebook: Couple Escapes Plane Crash

WESTHAMPTON-HAMPTON BAYS

Cops Say 40 People Rescued in Hampton Bays Saturday Night; 3 Face Charges

 In a statement released Sunday morning, Southampton Town police detectives said that on Saturday night, 40 people were rescued from the water or the sandbar in Shinnecock Bay where a party had previously been held and that three people are facing charges related to the massive water rescue incident.

NORTH FORK

For Assemblyman Dan Losquadro, R-Shoreham, a mandated Long Island Sound flyover route for Hamptons-bound helicopters is a “fix that didn’t fix anything.” Urged by Sen. Charles Schumer, the  a new rule that requires “helicopter pilots to use the New York North Shore Helicopter Route when operating along the North Shore of Long Island.”

But residents of Mattituck and nearby communities continue to complain about constant helicopter noise since the early August ruling. After a debate this week at a Federal Aviation Administration symposium of helicopter route at Brookhaven Town Hall, Losquadro said that all the feds did was “squeeze the balloon” of helicopter transitioning paths further east — concentrated over Mattiuck — instead of forcing pilots to fly over the water to Orient Point, then swing around to the Hamptons.

SOUTHAMPTON

A 43-year-old Shinnecock Reservation man turned himself in to authorities Tuesday afternoon, three days after he  while fleeing, according to Southampton Village police.

Det. Sgt. Herman Lamison said Wednesday that Chester A. Franklin was identified through an investigation and police arranged for him to come to the  to surrender himself.

Franklin was behind the wheel of an SUV that was under surveillance on Miller Road during a drug investigation, and when two police officers approached he drove toward them, Lamison said. One officer's foot was run over and the other officer was sideswiped by the fender, and both are out of work as they recover from soft tissue damage and muscular strains, he said.

Police said that as he fled, Franklin drove another driver off the road.

RIVERHEAD

Rumors swirling around Riverhead about a new methadone clinic possibly moving into the old Internal Revenue Service office space on East Main Street are just that: rumors

"It's not true," Donna Mahoney, a principal with the company that owns the property, East Main Street Riverhead LLC, said Tuesday. 

Mahoney said she has also been approached with concerns raised by locals who heard the rumors, and hoped to put the misconceptions to rest.

EAST HAMPTON

According to Ed Ecker, chief of police, a single-engine, low-wing Mooney aircraft was taking off from  to Taunton, Mass. when the craft's engine started to lose power. The pilot, a 52-year-old man, attempted to turn the plane around; however, crashed into the woods on the east side of Daniels Hole Road, just before 5:30 p.m.

Both the pilot and his passenger, a woman, managed to get out on their own before the plane caught fire. At least four people . 

Ecker said the pilot has over 30 years experience flying and flew into East Hampton earlier on Sunday for lunch with his passenger. They took off from runway 10, heading eastbound.