{"id":266373,"date":"2026-06-14T12:28:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T12:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/266373\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T12:28:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T12:28:51","slug":"queens-pilot-abandons-seaplane-in-east-river-after-wave-crashes-into-it-second-time-pilot-survives-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/266373\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens pilot abandons seaplane in East River after wave crashes into it; second time pilot survives crash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW YORK \u2013 A Queens pilot about to take off in his seaplane from the East River near the Throgs Neck Bridge had to abandon ship when a large wave smashed into the plane<\/a>, which began sinking, officials said.<\/p>\n

It was the second time in six years restaurateur Joe Oppedisano, 67, and passenger Jose Urena needed to be rescued from a smashed seaplane. In 2020, the former\u2019s previous single-engine seaplane crashed into a concrete pier near where his plane sank Saturday.<\/p>\n

Oppedisano\u2019s girlfriend, Maggie O\u2019Neil, 61, died in the earlier crash. He and Urena were critically injured.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the two men were able to walk away from the 9:20 a.m. incident with just minor injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was taking off and we hit a big wave,\u201d the pilot told the New York Daily News after being brought back to shore. \u201cThe windshield cracked and we took on water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oppedisano and Urena put on life preservers and jumped out of the plane before it became fully submerged. Sailors from a nearby private boat raced over, scooped the pair up and lashed ropes onto the sinking plane to keep it afloat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never got off the ground,\u201d Urena, 76, said. \u201c(The wave) broke the window and we got out. Luckily there was a boat passing by and they called the Fire Department.\u201d<\/p>\n

An FDNY Marine unit<\/a> quickly took the two men onto their boat to render medical aid. Their injuries were minor, an FDNY spokesman said.<\/p>\n

The swamped plane was towed to land.<\/p>\n

Urena said he and Oppedisano were in the water \u201cfor a minute and a half to two minutes\u201d before they were rescued.<\/p>\n

The two men were planning to fly to Fire Island to have lunch, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fluke thing,\u201d he said of their ordeal. \u201cBut everyone was very nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oppedisano owns the Il Bacco Ristorante in Little Neck, Queens. He lives on waterfront property on Riverside Drive, just a few feet from the site of Saturday\u2019s accident, and has a berth for his seaplane.<\/p>\n

During the Oct. 4, 2020, crash<\/a>, Oppedisano was landing his seaplane when a boat crossed his path. He avoided crashing into the boat, but the plane skipped on the water and crashed into the pier.<\/p>\n

A group of three jet skiers saw the crash and rushed in to assist, said John Polito, 45, who witnessed the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard it. It sounded like a tractor-trailer going full-blast down my block. And then I heard a big crash,\u201d he said. \u201cI walked in the back, nothing. All of a sudden I looked over the wall, and the plane was already against the wall, smashed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank God there were those three jet skiers out there,\u201d he added. \u201cThey pulled up to the adjoining dock, hopped off, and got two people out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 A Queens pilot about to take off in his seaplane from the East River near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-266373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266373","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=266373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}