Mattiello
UNION VALE – Civil Air Patrol Lt. Col. Lawrence Mattiello was at Sky Acres Airport last Sunday when a single-engine plane came in for a landing and overturned in a small pond near the runway.
Reflecting about the incident on Wednesday, he watched as the plane experienced trouble.
“Watching the airplane trying to get down on the runway I noticed the nose pitch up into what we call an aerodynamic stall, which means the wings would lift,” Mattiello said. “The plane fell off to the left, nose down, left wing down, impacted the dirt bank to the left side of the runway then flipped over on its back. All of it seemed like slow motion to me, but it was very distressing to see an airplane like that get into trouble.”
Mattiello, squatting on wing, after the mishap
While Mattiello feared the worst as he ran to the crash site, he saw the wing was above the water and the four occupants were getting out onto it.
He directed them to climb over the belly of the aircraft where he assisted them to land. The French teen with a head wound, Louis Farcot-Lafond, 16, of Paris, was the first to exit the plane followed by the Lynne Maloney, 52, the mother of the 17-year-old pilot, Christopher Maloney. His dad, Michael Maloney, 52, was last to climb out. The family lives in Cohoes.
Once everyone was out, Mattiello removed the personal effects from inside the plane and he reviewed the cockpit with the fire-rescue team that responded as he is a pilot.
Mattiello credits his quick action to the training he received with the Civil Air Patrol.
