infamous Covid conga line <\/a>in 2020 during the pandemic.<\/p>\nThe Catholic sanctuary includes smaller statues of famous saints like the Mother Mary and Saint Anthony, but centers around a 500-pound bronze effigy of Padre Pio, whom Oppedisano credits with his life.<\/p>\n
Oppedisano was piloting his single-engine Cessna\u00a0 on Oct. 4, 2020 with longtime friends Jose Urena and his girlfriend, Maggie O\u2019Neill, on board after a lunch in Nantucket and was preparing to land in the East River when a boat suddenly blocked his path.<\/p>\n
The plane skipped across the water and smashed into a concrete pier before splitting into pieces.<\/p>\n
The massive shrine will be unveiled this Sunday at a blessing ceremony. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n
Witnesses jumped to pull Oppedisano and Urena, who were in the cockpit, from the wreckage. Both were rushed to the hospital in critical condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a mess. And I had broken legs, broken knee, broken back, broken ribs, broken tongue. I was on strictly morphine. I\u2019m just hallucinating, I\u2019m in la-la land,\u201d Oppedisano said.<\/p>\n
In his daze, Oppedisano called his wife and daughter at 3 a.m., who recalled their loved one rambling for several minutes and repeatedly asking whether his other passengers had survived.<\/p>\n
Urena was injured but alive \u2014 but 61-year-old O\u2019Neill had been killed.<\/p>\n
The 500-pound bronze statue is currently sitting in the Il Bacco basement. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n
Tina Marie couldn\u2019t break the news to her father, instead saying, \u201cYou really just have to worry about you right now. Just focus on getting healthy and getting strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was almost like his whole aura shifted. His whole energy shifted, the tone of his voice, and he was like, \u2018Tina Maria, I\u2019m going to be just fine,’\u201d she said. \u201cHe goes, \u2018Padre Pio is here with me right now \u2026 he told me that I\u2019m going to be okay.\u2019 And I remember I just lost it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With tears in his eyes, Oppedisano recalled seeing the saint standing in his hospital room with him. The figure was neither touching nor speaking with him, but the restaurateur felt an overwhelming sense of calm and a \u201cchill.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a holy person. I\u2019m a sinner like everybody else, but it was something that I feel goes right through my body,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Oppedisano, right, and Jose Urena, left, survived the crash. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n
The plane smashed into a concrete pier near Oppedisano\u2019s home. FAA<\/p>\n
Oppedisano has gone under the knife 28 times since the crash, including for a leg-lengthening surgery after the impact of the accident resulted in a 1.5-inch difference between his legs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m all even now!\u201d he promised.<\/p>\n
The restaurateur feels as though he owes his life to the dead religious figure, and has made annual pilgrimages to see his body at its resting place in southern Italy.<\/p>\n
It was during a 2023 trip that Oppedisano bought the 6-foot-tall statue.<\/p>\n
Tina Marie helped fundraise $400,000 for the shrine. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n
Tina Marie spearheaded the Padre Pio Shrine of Little Neck non-profit, which crowdsourced more than $400,000 from the community to build the shrine on a lot that the family initially planned to use for restaurant parking.<\/p>\n
Missing from the shrine, however, is a memorial to or mention of O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had two sons \u2026 They\u2019re upset with me, like it was my fault that she died,\u201d Oppedisano said, adding that he hasn\u2019t spoken to the pair since the accident.<\/p>\n
A National Transportation Safety Board investigation listed<\/a> poor pilot judgment as the cause of the tragedy.<\/p>\nThe O\u2019Neill family declined to comment when reached by The Post. <\/p>\n
Although the shrine is Catholic in nature, Oppedisano says the spot will be open to all religions and neighbors as a daily accessible reflective community space.<\/p>\n
It will officially be unveiled at a blockbuster blessing ceremony this weekend, which the Oppedisanos expect to draw some 5,000 neighbors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens restaurateur who survived a fatal plane crash is erecting a massive shrine to the saint he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[6300,57,9,24,197,63,6649,122,124,123,54725,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-206162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-catholic","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-life","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-plane-crashes","15":"tag-queens","16":"tag-queens-headlines","17":"tag-queens-news","18":"tag-saints","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}