ENGLEWOOD PILOT KILLED IN N.Y. ACCIDENT; PLANE CRASHES INTO HILLTOP LAKE IN FOG

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, September 21, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

A 44-year-old Englewood man who was trying to land his plane in dense fog and rain at an upstate New York airport was killed Wednesday when the plane crashed into a hilltop lake.

Divers removed the body of Mark Jacob Pressburger, 44, from the bottom of Sand Pond near Callicoon at about 2 p.m. Thursday.

Trooper Robert Gillespie, a spokesman for the New York State Police, said Pressburger was flying to meet his wife at the Concord Resort Hotel in Kiamesha Lake, N.Y., on Wednesday night.

Gillespie said Pressburger was apparently thrown clear of the aircraft when it shattered into three pieces as it hit the water.

“It appeared he was the only person on the plane,” Gillespie said. “They located his body at the bottom of the lake, near the wreckage of the plane.”

Greg Feith, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said the Piper Apache took off from Teterboro Airport at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

As Pressburger approached Sullivan County Airport in White Lake, he had trouble attempting a landing on his first pass, Feith said, and was told to circle around and climb to 4,000 feet.

Airport officials and investigators reported that visibility in the area was poor due to dense fog and rain, and that the cloud cover was at 300 feet.

Pressburger, who an official said was co-owner of Bergen Wholesale Meats in Hackensack, acknowledged the instructions. Shortly afterward, at around 5:45 p.m., air controllers lost radio and radar contact with the plane in the Sand Pond area, about 11 miles northwest of the airport.

Gillespie said police began receiving calls reporting a crash shortly after 6 p.m. Searchers that night found debris from the plane, he said, but could not find the plane itself.

On Thursday morning, the searchers returned to Sand Pond Lake and found an oil slick that led them to the wreckage.

Feith said it might take weeks to determine the cause of the crash.

This article contains material from The Associated Press.

Caption: ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO – Divers returning ashore after finding the body of a pilot whose plane crashed Wednesday night in a Sullivan County, N.Y., lake.

ID: 17316717 | Copyright © 1990, The Record (New Jersey)