Updated at 1:21 PM EDT on Sunday, Aug 2, 2015
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.