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September 28, 2014 - On Saturday about 10:40 AM,
two aircraft participating in the Young Eagles
event collided midair about six miles east
southeast of
Buffalo Lancaster Regional Airport,
New York.
Onboard the aircraft, a Cessna 172 (N9679H)
and SeaRey (N89KD), a
amateur built aircraft were a pilot and one
child on each airplane. A witness reported the
aircraft appeared to have clip each others
wings. Weather conditions at the time was
reported to be good conditions.
The Cessna 172 pilot,
Anthony Mercurio, 78,
and
his passenger
James Metz, 14, died
in the plane crash. The SeaRey
pilot,
Kevin D'Angelo, 59, and his nine year old passenger
were able to make a hard
emergency landing in a grass field and walk away
with only minor injuries.
D'Angelo siad "The only way to control it was to
crash into trees and bushes. It was basically a
forced crash, smashing into the trees as a
brake." D'Angelo said after the crash he looked
at his passenger "She was looking at me like,
'Was this a normal landing?' Not a tear in her
eye. She was a trouper." Both D'Angelo and his
passenger walked away from the airplane and were
picked up by a person on an ATV.
The Young Eagles is a program that was developed
to expose young people between the ages of 8 to
17 an opportunity to experience flight in a
general aviation airplane, while educating
children about aviation. The program was created
by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA).
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