1 dead in small-plane crash near Republic Airport

A single-engine plane carrying four people crashed on a street in East Farmingdale Sunday morning, killing one passenger and seriously injuring the others, police and federal aviation officials said.

The 1969 Marchetti plummeted from the sky at 9 a.m., shortly after taking off from nearby Republic Airport. The plane hit trees and four parked cars before it skidded to a halt near several homes and an industrial complex in front of 60 E. Carmans Rd., Suffolk police said.

Passenger Ed Cerverizzo, 75, of Garden City, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Bethpage and pronounced dead at 9:45 a.m. The plane's pilot, Gus Halouvas, 55, of North Bellmore, was one of three others taken to local hospitals with serious injuries.

"Shortly after it attained altitude, it apparently lost the engine and had no power after that," said Det. Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky, commanding officer of Suffolk's homicide squad. "The pilot attempted to land the plane as safely as he could. He came through over a demolition yard and was able to go through some trees and landed on a roadway without hitting any people on the ground."

Aircraft's doors open

Emergency responders said they found the plane upright, its doors open and all four occupants lying on the ground. Firefighters sprayed foam to prevent spilled fuel from catching fire, said East Farmingdale Fire District spokesman Joseph Scura.

Halouvas was at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow with spinal injuries, police said. Passenger William Mancusi, 83, of Brooklyn, was taken there as well with facial lacerations. Police said the other passenger, Charles Bianculli, 61, of Lindenhurst, was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip and was listed in critical condition.

Cerverizzo himself had been an avid pilot with about 40 years of experience, said his son Mike Cerverizzo. Ed Cerverizzo had flown with Halouvas and Mancusi for at least three decades, his son said. The men would often take to the air on Sundays, grab breakfast at another airport, and fly home.

"It had to be mechanical," Mike Cerverizzo, 47, of Oceanside, said of the crash's cause, "because they had too much experience."

As a kid, Mike Cerverizzo said he came home with a model airplane one day and it rekindled his father's youthful interest in flying radio-controlled planes. Soon, Ed Cerverizzo was flying the real thing and airplanes became a focus of his life, his son said. "He went out doing what he loved," Mike Cerverizzo said.

Ed Cerverizzo also leaves behind a wife of 51 years, Diana; a daughter, Margaret, of Island Park, and six grandchildren.

Ed Cerverizzo was retired from running Mike Cerverizzo & Sons, a fence company in Brooklyn that his father started and that's still in the family.

The plane was registered to Brookfield Aviation Services, at Halouvas' address in North Bellmore, and is based at Republic Airport, officials said.

No distress call to tower

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said Halouvas had been practicing touch-and-go landings, where the plane's wheels touch down on the runway and then the pilot takes the aircraft quickly back up in the air.

"After he took off, he was turning . . . for his first touch-and-go and he asked the tower for a low approach into the airport," Peters said.

The control tower then asked if Halouvas was having any trouble. "The pilot indicated no problem," Peters said. "He crashed shortly after that. There was no conversation with the pilot, no mayday or any other kind of distress call."

Peters said the National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating the crash.

East Farmingdale resident Jackie Herrmann looked out the window when she heard the plane flying at what sounded like a low altitude. She said the aircraft "made a sharp turn, hit the tree and just fell right out of the sky. . . . I heard metal on metal. No screeching or nothing, just a scraping noise."

Herrmann said residents near Republic Airport worry about their safety because of accidents like this.

With Bill Mason, Will Van Sant and Kevin P. Coughlin