Small plane vanishes near NY airport; search is ongoing

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — A small plane disappeared while approaching a suburban New York airport Thursday evening, and a search was under way, authorities said.

Preliminary information indicates the pilot of a single-engine Beechcraft A36 reported engine trouble about a mile (1.6 km) from the Westchester County Airport around 6:15 p.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Elizabeth Isham Cory said. The airport is near White Plains, about 39 miles (63 km) north of JFK.

The plane was flying from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to the Cuyahoga County Airport in Richmond Heights, Ohio, with an unknown number of people aboard, Cory said.

Westchester police spokesperson Kieran O’Leary said the pilot had radioed air traffic controllers that the plane was approaching the White Plains airport, but then went silent.

“There’s a search under way to determine what happened with that aircraft,” he said later Thursday.

Emergency responders including Westchester police and firefighters were combing through nearby woods and a reservoir, O’Leary said.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are to investigate the incident.