A small plane with three people on board collapsed on Wednesday morning at the top of a remote mountain in southern Vermont, the authorities said.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, a Piper PA-28 poured around 3:50 am near the 3,000-foot top of Equinox Mountain, just west of Manchester.
“The snow helped to dampen autumn,” said Jamie Greene, the first assistant chef at the Manchester fire brigade, during a press conference.
Greene said, however, that this also created 'extremely difficult circumstances' for the rescue teams, which had to wade to four feet deeply due to 'snow'.
The pilot called 911 at 8:33 am for the first time to report the crash and said that all three people on board had non-lifferring injuries. It remains unclear why there was an hour -long delay between the crash and the call to the authorities.
Local authorities called on the New York State Police for extra help before the location of the plane was determined by the first responds at around 10:16 am.
A police helicopter of the state of New York was flying to the crash site. All three passengers were successfully flown to the public safety facility of Manchester.
One passenger was then taken to Albany Medical Center for further evaluation.
A helicopter at the New York State Police Department arrives in the public safety facility of Manchester with one of three passengers involved in the Vermont crash on Wednesday morning
Jamie Greene, the first assistant chef at the Manchester fire brigade, said that the authorities received a message from the crash for the first time at 8:33 am, although the FAA reports that the crash took place at 3:50 am
The plane crashed near the top of Equinox Mountain (photo)
The plane was a Piper PA-28 (stock image), a small plane with four seats with a propeller
The rescue effort took the cooperation of at least six local agencies and the State police departments of New York and Vermont.
The Manchester Journal reported that ATVs, snowmobiles, trucks and people in snowshoes urged the snow -covered mountain in the morning and tried to get to the three stranded people.
“They came to a point where they had to get from the main path that goes up and around, and literally it was deep in the snow, so we had to return to snowshoes. It was a very robust terrain, but our boys pushed through it, “said Greene.
This incident comes when the United States is struggling with almost-daily aircraft crash or almost mistakes since January 29, when an airplane of an American Airlines flying in Washington DC Reagan National Airport clashed with an army Black Hawk helicopter.
All 67 victims, including world -class skaters from the US and Russia on board the passenger plane, were killed in the fiery crash.
Another plane from the American Airlines had almost the same fate at the same airport on Tuesday.
The flight from Boston Logan International approached the runway at 8:20 am when the pilot saw another plane preparing to leave the same point.
The crew made a quick decision to walk around to prevent another crash, as demonstrated by a tracing of the path of Maryland-bound aircraft on Flightaware.
Depicted: The moment the plane of the American Airlines and the Black Hawk Helicopter Crash, which causes a visible explosion
Shown: the wreck of the crash plane of January 29 about the Potomac River
An almost identical incident happened the same day at Chicago International Airport in Midway.
This time it was a Southwest Boeing 737-8h4 that quickly had to break down the landing when it saw a private jet on his path.
No one was injured in the incident and the southwestern aircraft landed the safety in Chicago after the incident.
That narrow call came days after two aircraft bumped in Marana Airport in Arizona last week, killing two.
The NTSB, which investigates the collision, said that the two aircraft involved were a Cessna 172S and a Lancair 360 MK II, which clashed while 'headwind of Runway 12,' one of the two runways at the small regional airport.
The FAA said that the regional airport of Marana, which is outside of Tucson, is an uncontrolled airport, which means that it does not have operational air traffic tower.
