Husky downed at KFRG on Saturday.

Pilot of Republic plane crash still in intensive care
BY DANIEL WAGNER
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May 7, 2007
The pilot of a small, private plane that crashed while taking off at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale on Saturday was in intensive care and awaiting major surgery yesterday afternoon, hospital officials and family members said.

"We just have to focus on being with my husband," a visibly shaken Diane Pacifico said of her husband, Vincent. "We just need to get him stable" after he emerges from "very serious surgery," she said.

Shelly Lautenberg, spokeswoman for Nassau University Medical Center, described Pacifico as in "guarded but stable condition." She said his passenger, Joe Perna, 46, who lives blocks from Pacifico in Massapequa, was discharged from the hospital early yesterday.

Pacifico is an experienced pilot with a commercial license, while Perna holds FAA certificates as an airframe and powerplant mechanic, FAA records show.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which has taken over the investigation, had a team in the area yesterday, a spokesman said. He said they would be documenting the crash site and "looking for the probable cause of the accident."

Federal authorities and airport officials have given conflicting accounts of the events leading to the destruction of the Husky plane that Pacifico and Perna were flying to a safety seminar at Brookhaven Calabro Airport.

The official Federal Aviation Administration preliminary report will state that the plane veered to the edge of the runway and flipped, said FAA spokesman Jim Peters. But one FAA investigator and airport officials told Newsday that the incident occurred after the plane had lifted off.

Lets pray that he makes a full recovery.

But one thing struck me as ironic: "of the Husky plane that Pacifico and Perna were flying to a safety seminar at Brookhaven Calabro Airport." Rather ironic if you ask me.