The plane that crashed into the Hudson River Monday night was a training flight from a Long Island school that went wrong, according to an airport insider.
The single-engine aircraft — which belongs to Long Island Flying, according to its tail number — had taken off from MacArthur Airport in Islip an hour before it splashed down into the icy river after the pilot reported that his engine was failing near Newburgh, just east of Stewart International Airport.
“Yeah, we’re going to go into the Hudson … I don’t think we’re going to make the airport,” the pilot told air traffic control, according to audio of the distress call.
An insider at the Stewart Airport, who did not wish to be named, told The Post many training pilots will loop their plane around Stewart Airport with students before turning back to Long Island.
The unusually calm conditions last night could have made it more difficult for the pilot to reach the airport once he lost power, he said.
The “lack of wind last night actually made it more difficult to keep the nose of this plane up on approach because he had no power as he hit the water,” the insider said.
“This pilot was either very lucky or very good to be able to sacrifice his tail and not flip over,” he added.
The Cessna 172, which had just the pilot and another passenger on board, went down around 8 p.m. — with the two swimming to safety to the shore in a feat Gov. Kathy Hochul praised as “another miracle on the Hudson.”
The pair, who have not been identified, were found in the warehouse along the waterfront about 10 to 15 minutes after the crash was initially reported — and had changed into dry clothes they found there, local EMS officials said.
The two were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital for possible hypothermia as a precaution but were in “good spirits” and cracking jokes, officials said.
The plane remained submerged in the river Tuesday surrounded by ice with its tail and right wing sticking above the waterline, video from the scene shows.