Two Dead In Plane Crash Near Westchester Airport

The identities have been released of two people who were killed after a small plane crashed near Westchester County Airport.

Two people were killed when a single-engine plane flying from New York City's JFK Airport to Richmond Heights, Ohio crashed north of the Westchester County Airport Thursday, Jan. 19. The wreckage was found near Rye Lake (red pin).
Photo Credit: *Google Maps & Canva/MattGush*

Michael Mashburn

01/19/2023 8:58 p.m.

The crash happened around 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19 near the airport in White Plains.

The wreckage of the single-engine Beechcraft A36 was found just west of the airport near Rye Lake (marked in red in the image above).

The two were en route from John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens to a small regional airport in Richmond Heights, Ohio, near Cleveland, reportedly to attend a funeral.

The men have been identified as Cleveland residents Baruch Taub and Benyamin Chafetz, according to separate reports by Yeshiva World and by Belaaz News, a Jewish news organization. Taub was the pilot, according to a report by the Daily Mail.

Chafetz, a tech entrepreneur who was the lone passenger, sent a text message to a WhatsApp group just before the crash, according to the Daily Mail.

"We lost engines," part of the message reportedly read. "Call and have community say Tehillim (Hebrew for the Book of Psalms)."

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