Pilot in Bonnet Shores crash involved in previous incidents
By News Staff
The small plane that crashed off the coast of Bonnet Shores was being flown by 26-year-old Jeremiah Coholan of North Dartmouth, who was flying a plane that made an emergency landing in New York back in January.
Coholan was toting an AT&T banner when his plane went down into Narragansett Bay Monday afternoon.
The U.S. Coast Guard says Coholan was rescued by a nearby boater. He was evaluated on-scene and only received a small scratch.
There’s no word on why the single-engine propeller plane plunged into the water, but the lifeguard who swam out to the crash site, Nick Mongeau, says Coholan told him the engine just gave out.
According to the Associated Press Coholan was the pilot of a single-engine plane that made an emergency landing in a field outside of Rochester New York in January.
Coholan took off from New Bedford and as they approached Rochester, the Cessna engine seized up as ice clogged the carburetor.
He was able to safely land in a snow-covered field behind a home.
The Coast Guard says it’s helping to salvage the wreckage in Narragansett Bay.
The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management shut down the beach temporarily due to fuel leakage, but it eventually re-opened.
© WLNE-TV 2016
