Edited by: TJVNews.com

A small plane crashed near a suburban New York airport, killing the pilot and his passenger, both from the Cleveland area, authorities said Friday, as was reported by the AP.

The pilot reported low oil pressure to air traffic controllers and tried to make an emergency landing at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, about 40 miles (63 kilometers) north of JFK, the officials said.

The AP reported that the plane began losing altitude, and the pilot, 40-year-old Boruch Taub, “recognized that he had ony a handful of minutes to try to bring the plane to a safe landing,” said Westchester County Executive George Latimer. “He was unable to do that.”

The wreckage of the plane was found just before 11 p.m. in a heavily wooded area about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the runway at Westchester County Airport, Latimer said.

The victims’ remains were found near the downed plane, officials said, according to the AP report. They were identified as Taub, the owner of MasterWorks Automotive in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and Benjamin Chafetz, 45, of Beachwood, Ohio, who owned a web development company.

The two were returning in the evening from a funeral in New York when Taub reported engine trouble to air-traffic control after the plane had just taken off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to a report on the Chabad.org  web site. Declaring a “Mayday,” Taub attempted to make an emergency landing at Westchester County Airport, but the plane crashed into a wooded area two miles from the airport.

Taub and Chafetz were described as “pillars of the community,” and Chafetz’s kind-heartedness and generosity were known far beyond Ohio, Chabad.org reported. Taub, a father of five, owned an auto-repair shop and was praised for his outstanding honesty and business integrity by friends and acquaintances. “He was extremely careful in business and always kind and accommodating,” Avrumy Fergusson, a friend of Taub, told Chabad.org.

Fergusson recalls how Taub recently donated towards the writing of a new Torah scroll at their synagogue. “He had money set aside for a lawsuit to sue someone, but then he decided to let it go and donate the money for a good cause,” said Fergusson, as was reported by Chabad.org. An experienced pilot, Taub was “very passionate” about flying and “loved to share the beauty of flight and the open skies with people,” he added, noting that Taub gave him a ride to Chicago just two months ago.

Rabbi Tzvi Rivkin, formerly the Chabad emissary in Bangalore, India, was devastated at the news. “Ben was a very special, caring friend—a brother,” he told Chabad.org. “We spoke very often. This is horrible to hear; baruch dayan haemet (‘blessed be the true Judge’). Ben came to India every six months, and every time before coming, he would call and ask what he could bring. He came with huge suitcases of food and other goods for us and the community.”

In 2022, Chafetz was instrumental in helping Chabad open a new mikvah in Athens.

“Ben was very involved in the campaign to build the mikvah and helped spread the word. He took a personal interest in it. He was a very special person, a person of action. He really cared. This is very shocking and tragic,” Rabbi Mendel Hendel told Chabad.org just before Shabbat in Greece.

Boruch Taub is survived by his wife, Shoshana and their five children. The funeral was held on January 22nd at the Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Memorial Chapel in Cleveland Heights.

Ben Chafetz is survived by his wife, Smadar, and their seven children. He was laid to rest in Cleveland on Jan. 20, shortly before Shabbat.

(AP & Chabad.org)