NTSB: Controller sent pilot who died in Long Island plane crash to closed airport

WESTHAMPTON BEACH (WABC) -- A preliminary accident report indicates a pilot killed when his plane crashed at a railroad crossing this month on Long Island had been directed by an air traffic controller to a landing strip that no longer exists at a closed airport.

Fifty-nine-year-old pilot Joseph Milo, of Westhampton Beach, was killed Aug. 16 when his single-engine aircraft hit the tracks in Hicksville. A passenger was injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report issued Monday said Milo had told air traffic controllers that his Beech C35 plane was "having a little bit of a problem."

The controller then told the pilot there was a "Bethpage strip" at an airport closed decades ago at the site of a former military defense contractor.

"Charlie, the strip is a closed airport," a log of the transmission reads "I jut know there is a runway there about 11 o' clock and a mile and a half now."

According to the report, the next transmissions revealed that Milo told the controller he was unable to see the runway. But the controller, according to investigators, continued to provide Milo directions to get there.

"The pilot in command is ultimately responsible, ultimately accountable for the safe completion of every flight," said Michael Canders, an associate professor at the Aviation Center at Farmingdale State College.

He says in an emergency landing, air traffic control is only a guide for the pilot. The final decision of where to bring down the plane rests with the pilot.

"You have no idea what was happening in that cockpit," he said. "No finger pointing, no blaming the pilot. The passenger will be able to tell the NTSB what he saw."

The surviving passenger has told investigators he heard a popping sound just before the engine failed. The plane then began to sputter before completely losing power.

Some said it is concerning that the air traffic controller apparently wasn't aware that the runway in Bethpage no longer existed.

"I think it is going to result in a reprimand, a letter down to all controllers to revisit all of the local areas that you are responsible for," aviation expert J.P. Tristani said. "What are the airports available? Don't go on your childhood memories of an airport that used to be there."

A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration declined to comment.

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(The Associated Press contributed to this report)