Two men have died in New York state after their plane crashed on the way to a funeral.
The pilot, Boruch Taub, and solitary passenger Binyamin Chafetz were both killed when their aircraft went down after reporting engine troubles and sending out a distress signal over Westchester County, New York.
Tracking the plane on Flightradar24 found that the aircraft suddenly changed course before descending thousands of feet in just a few minutes.
Per the Federal Aviation Administration, a Beechcraft A36 single engine plane piloted by Taub reported that it had suffered from engine troubles at around 5:25pm when it was a mile away from Westchester County Airport.
Advert
A further call from the plane then reported low oil pressure and a few minutes later, an emergency was declared, with a 'mayday' call being heard by air traffic control before all contact was lost with the aircraft.
The plane had taken off at 4:58pm from John F Kennedy International Airport in New York and had been heading for Cuyahoga County Airport, Ohio, when the emergency forced it to divert to Westchester.
Changing course in the hopes of making an emergency landing at the county airport, the plane and its passengers sadly never made it there.
Search crews combed the area looking for the plane and found the aircraft wreckage in trees near Rye Lake with both men aboard dead upon discovery.
Advert
While the plane had space for six occupants, the only people inside were the two men who sadly died in the crash.
They were found at around 11pm by recovery teams which had been searching for the plane and the men inside, with teams sent to look through wooded areas and dive into bodies of water.
The Yeshiva World reports that the plane was found in the trees on a small island on a reservoir near Westchester County Airport.
According to Jacob Henry of The New York Jewish Week, Chaftez sent a number of messages to a WhatsApp group of his friends telling his family he loved them.
Advert
The heartbreaking messages, sent shortly after the plane first reported that it was experiencing difficulties, also asked his community to pray for him.
CBS New York spoke to the plane's owner, who runs Ohio-based company Daviation who said he was 'devastated' by the news of the crash and the two men's death.
He said they were both experienced pilots who lived around the Cleveland area.
Joe Harker