04/07/09 Greenwich High School Math Teacher, Lauren Busskohl, Survives Plane Crash

Pound Ridge man, Greenwich High teacher walk away from Carolina plane crash
Journal News

A pilot from Pound Ridge and his passenger escaped serious injury Saturday when the Cessna he was piloting from Danbury, Conn., to Myrtle Beach, S.C., was forced to make an emergency landing at an airport in Ocean Isle, N.C., but crashed a few hundred feet short of the runway, authorities said yesterday.

Daniel Moskovitz, 43, and his passenger, Lauren Busskohl of Stamford, Conn., were treated at Brunswick Community Hospital after the 5:40 p.m. crash and were released. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating, said Lt. Ken Bellamy of the Ocean Isle Police Department.

The single-engine Cessna 177 was en route from the Danbury Municipal Airport to Myrtle Beach when Moskovitz reported engine trouble and requested permission to land at the Ocean Isle airport, said Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the FAA's southern region.

She said the plane was registered to a Delaware corporation called Fly 4 Food Inc.

In an e-mail to The Journal News yesterday, Busskohl, a math teacher at Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Conn., recalled the calmness with which Moskovitz landed the plane despite its loss of engine power.

"We were less than 10 minutes to our destination ... when the engine started to have trouble. It was revving and slowing and finally cut out," Busskohl wrote. "Danny was calm and extremely expert in his ability to get us within 20 feet of the runway, missing all buildings, trees and powerlines before he crash-landed us on the belly of the plane.

"He got us both out of the plane and ran from the aircraft, in case of fire or explosion. Many locals came running to our side from the local road we crashed by. The police and paramedics got to us very quickly and took us to the hospital to make sure we were okay. Amazingly we both walked away."

Busskohl said she was fine other than a "nasty headache," but said the crash aggravated a back injury Moskovitz suffered many years ago in a car accident........

================================================================
Please send your comments, news tips and press releases to GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com or click on the comments link at the end of this post.

She said they were continuing their trip to Pensacola, Fla. - via rental car - for her friend's wedding....