Two Queens men were killed after a plane they were flying in crashed in a Long Island inlet last weekend, authorities said.
Cyril Mclavin, 51, of Fresh Meadows, and Andrew Messana, 72, of Bayside, have been identified as the two victims whose lives were claimed on October 20 at 3:06 p.m. when a small plane the pair was in went down in Moriches Inlet, cops said.
The aircraft was pulled from the water, and the two bodies were recovered from the cockpit of the plane, police said. They were taken to the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsies.
The total number of occupants on the plane has not yet been determined, according to authorities, and an investigation into what caused the crash is under investigation.
Witnesses on the beach and on a nearby boat, who heard the plane’s engine sputtering, watched as the craft fell from the sky, police said. They attempted to keep the plane above water by tying a rope to the plane, but cops said the aircraft eventually sank approximately 30 feet below.
The families of both victims were unreachable as of press time.