Monday, August 3, 2015

Coast Guard Chopper Monitoring the Bayonne, NJ Oil Spill Makes Emergency Landing on Golf Course



A Coast Guard helicopter pilot found a suitable clearing to make an emergency landing Sunday: a fairway on a Staten Island golf course.

The chopper was flying into New York air space from a Coast Guard station in Atlantic City to monitor an oil spill near Bayonne, N.J., when smoke and fumes started to fill the cockpit.

"Our flight mechanic smelled something," said pilot Elise Roberts. "We were setting up for a precautionary landing when we started losing equipment and decided we needed to land immediately."

The aircraft landed safely at about 10:30 a.m. on a fairway at the Richmond Country Club.

Four crew members were aboard the helicopter. No one was injured.