'I don't think we are gonna make the airport,' MacArthur pilot from Southampton says before crashing into Hudson River

A Southampton pilot in a small plane that took off from MacArthur Airport Monday and went down in the Hudson River upstate is heard on a recording saying: "We are going into the Hudson River, I don't think we are gonna make the airport."

The audio was verified by the New York State Police, who identified the pilot and flight instructor as Liam D'Arcy, 31, and his passenger as a 17-year-old student from Locust Valley. D'Arcy is certified as a flight instructor and a commercial pilot, according to FAA records.

In what Gov. Kathy Hochul called "another miracle on the Hudson," D'Arcy and passenger swam to safety after the plane went into the icy waters east of Stewart International Airport in Newburgh.

Photos showed the Cessna 172, operated by Long Island Flying, a flight school based at MacArthur, almost totally submerged but still afloat, amid ice flows in the frigid waters Tuesday in the Hudson.

In a statement Monday, New York State Police said troopers based in upstate Montgomery responded to a report of a plane crash in the Hudson south of the Newburgh Beacon Bridge at 8:02 p.m.

"It was revealed," State Police Trooper Jennifer Alvarez said in that emailed statement, "that Stewart International Airport operations were in communications with a Cessna airplane that landed in the Hudson River. Both occupants self-extricated and were found on shore near 401 Water Street and transported to St. Luke's Hospital [Montefiore St. Luke's Hospital Cornwall] with minor injuries."

Attempts to reach a representative at the flight school were unsuccessful Tuesday — and voicemail messages and emails to the school were not immediately returned. The official Long Island Flying website had a photo of the Cessna, a white-and-blue plane with a serial number matching one confirmed by Federal Aviation Administration records, posted on the site early Tuesday. By Tuesday afternoon the photograph of that plane had been removed from the site — with no explanation provided.

In a statement to Newsday on Tuesday, the FAA said: "A Cessna 172 crashed into the Hudson River east of New York Stewart International Airport around 8 p.m. local time on Monday, March 2. Two people were on board. The FAA will investigate."

State Police said they also are investigating the incident — in conjunction with specialists from the National Transportation Safety Board.

A preliminary incident report posted Tuesday by the FAA noted only: "Aircraft experienced engine issues and made an emergency landing on the Hudson River, New York, NY."

Data from the flight tracking website FlightAware showed the Cessna had made a series of touch-an-go flights at MacArthur earlier Monday, before what the FAA listed as a "sightseeing" trip from Long Island to Newburgh beginning at 6:54 p.m.

Tracking information shows the plane circling in the area around Stewart International before being forced to ditch in the Hudson.

The Governor and Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus both echoed the famed "Miracle on the Hudson" ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 on Jan. 15, 2009. That flight, involving an Airbus A320-214 carrying 150 passengers and a crew of five, was forced to ditch in the Hudson somewhere near 48th Street after bird strikes following takeoff from LaGuardia Airport caused both engines to fail.

The quick-thinking of pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles enabled everyone on board to survive the ditching in the frigid waters.

In a statement late Monday, Neuhaus called it "Miracle on the Hudson, Part 2."

Hochul posted on X: "Another miracle on the Hudson. Thank God both the pilot and passenger of a single-engine plane that performed an ice landing near Newburgh have been located with only minor injuries. Grateful to our first responders for their quick actions."

The National Weather Service reported air temperatures in the area Monday night were about 26 degrees at the time of the incident — headed to 21 degrees overnight. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it had the water temperature at 32.18 degrees near Bear Mountain on Tuesday.

The U.S. Coast Guard water temperature survival guide said exposure in water around 32.5 degrees or colder is less than 15 minutes before exhaustion, unconsciousness and even death. Maximum survival time is less than 45 minutes.