The search continues this morning for a 23-year-old City College student from Queens who was one of four passengers aboard a single-engine Piper Archer plane that went down in Long Island Sound around 11 p.m. on Saturday. Three men on the plane were rescued from the frigid waters of Setauket Harbor off the North Shore of Long Island, but the fourth man, Gerson Salmon-Negron, is missing.

According to the Suffolk County police department, the four-seat fixed wing plane began experiencing engine trouble while a student pilot, Austricio Ramirez, was at the controls. The instructor pilot, Nelson Gomez, immediately took over and made an emergency landing in the harbor.

After making it to shore, Gomez, 36, said everyone had managed to exit the plane after it hit the water. Gomez, Austricio Ramirez, 25, of the Bronx; and Wady Perez, 25, of Queens were rescued by Suffolk County Police officers. They were taken to Stony Brook University Hospital, treated and released.

The three rescued men were in the 37 degree water for approximately 30 minutes before they were saved, according to police. Newsday reports:


"They had a struggle out there. It was cold,” Suffolk police Lt. Michael S. Murphy said. Police said some of the survivors wore life jackets.

Suffolk Officer Charles Scala said when he got to the water’s edge, he shined his flashlight on one person about 100 feet from shore, who was struggling to stay afloat. First, Scala screamed to get the man’s attention, he said. Then, Scala said, he rushed into the water with a life ring to drag the man to safety.

The Coast Guard and police divers spent 18 hours yesterday searching for Salmon-Negron, who was expected to graduate in June with a degree in business administration. Ramirez and Perez were reportedly his friends, and according to Facebook accounts of the day, they appear to have flown together from Long Island to Boston on Saturday morning, and attempted to return to Long Island's MacArthur Airport that night.

Jayne Ann Klein, a resident who lives by the harbor, tells the Times she saw the plane go down:


“He just kind of glided in, very quiet,” Ms. Klein said. “There was no big, violent thing. There was no crash.” A short time later, she said, a police officer pulled his cruiser into the family’s driveway. Without saying a word, he jumped out and ran down the backyard steps that led to a beach about 65 feet below.

The officer, Charles Scala, said that when he got to the beach he saw a man whose energy appeared to be flagging trying to wade ashore. Officer Scala said he waded out to the man with a life ring and dragged him to safety.

Ms. Klein’s husband, George, said he got to the beach in time to help bring the man ashore. “He didn’t have any visible injuries, but he was definitely suffering from hypothermia and shock,” Mr. Klein said. The water temperature was 37 degrees at the time, according to the police.

The man wore a white shirt with epaulets, Ms. Klein said. According to Mr. Klein, the man said the plane’s engine had stopped working and that all four people on board had managed to get out of the plane after it hit the water.

Salmon-Negron’s mother, Ivette Salmon, said her son had flown to Massachusetts to celebrate Perez's birthday. "I just want him to show up,” Salmon told Newsday. "I don’t care how... He’s my only son... He was kidding me and saying he was going to fly... Wady said to me, ‘Oh Ivette, we’re going to Massachusetts by plane.’ I thought they were going by American Airlines or something. I didn’t know they were going to take a private plane."

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating what caused the engine failure, as the search continues today. “The water’s very cold, but we always hope for the best,” Suffolk County Police Officer Christopher Draskin told the NY Post. Officials, however, said late Saturday that their mission status has changed from "search-and-rescue" to "recovery."