By Kelsey Durham
A Jamaica Estates man died Tuesday morning after a plane he was piloting crashed in the backyard of a Long Island home, the Suffolk County Police Department said.
Authorities said Hanan Shoshany, 53, was the sole passenger on a single-engine private plane that crashed into the yard of a home at 51 Camille Lane in East Patchogue, L.I., just after 9 a.m. about 15 minutes after Shoshany took off from Republic Airport in East Farmingdale, L.I.
Shoshany was pronounced dead at the scene, and no one on the ground was hurt in the crash, police said.
First responders said it appeared Shoshany made an attempt to land in between houses to avoid hurting anyone on the ground after realizing his engine was failing, according to a report in Newsday.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane, a Columbia Lancair LC 41, was headed to MacArthur Airport in Islip, L.I. The FAA had not yet determined the cause of the crash, but an investigation was continuing.
Shoshany, a native of Israel, had lived in New York for close to 30 years and owned the Jeans Star clothing store in the Bronx, according to the store’s manager, Joey Eshun.
A family friend said Shoshany’s relatives, including his wife and five children, flew to Israel Tuesday afternoon, where he was expected to be buried.
Reach reporter Kelsey Durham at 718-260-4573 or by e-mail at kdurham@cnglocal.com.
