Any news on AERO EXPRESS?
 

Any news on the aero express crash in ny today?

2 Dead in Long Island Boating Accident

Last Edited: Sunday, 24 Aug 2008, 6:43 PM EDT
Created: Sunday, 24 Aug 2008, 6:35 PM EDT

Breaking news from MyFoxNY.com.

MyFoxNY.com -- Suffolk County fire officials said two people died Sunday after a boat flipped over during a race in the Great South Bay.

It happened in Patchogue.

Further details were not immediately available.



This was just found, how awful!

I just spoke to Mark H and he said that both guys in the boat were killed,we pray for all of there friends and family.R,I,P

Hey im just a spectator from long island and I seen the boat flip.. From the looks of things I thought everything was fine but I guess not. Its a shame

Rest in peace...

This just blows my mind. I can't even put into words what I just witnessed. Just a couple of guys cruising in their boat. My thoughts and prayers to their family and friends. It's not supposed to happen like that.

OMG.. Prayers sent to the families and all involved in this.

Condolences and Prayers to the families. R.I.P.

found this, pretty much the same info http://wcbstv.com/local/Fatal.Boat.Race.2.802070.html

RIP and our prayers go out to the families:(

R.I.P. condolences to all involved

Just got back from Patchogue,was helping to get Aero express out of the water.That boat was some pile of ****,certainly not made to run that fast.My condolences to the families of those lost.

thats terrible,who built it?

THis is terrible. I pray for their families and friends. I hope this does not impact OPA and Long island.
RIP

I think it was an MTI.

Rip

We were waiting to crane out, heard the terrible news,
R I P my friends, God watch over the families, you are in our thoughts & prayers.
:(

R.I.P and condolences to friends and family. Truly a tragic ending to an otherwise great day and event. Godspeed.

Friday night the Village of Patchogue had thousands of people on Main Street, live bands on the street along with the boats. Areo Express was directly accross from us we all had a great time.
Saturday the Skiffs and Garveys lit up the bay, the fans went crazy, hats off to Mike Merola and his crew. In the afternoon we had speed runs and testing it was quite a show.
Sunday was started with classes 6 thru 4 the boys put on quite a show with some deck to deck racing. Classes 1,2 and 3 were next to go class one was a battle from the get go, class 2 was the battle of the supervee's with the bandit cat and the monster powered Sutphen, class 3, well these guys don't play around, they were awesome!
Last heat was Cat, SuperCat and Extreme they were flying.
Lap 3 tragedy struck when Aero Express flipped and we lost 2 of our family. My sincerest condolances to there Families, Friends and Team members. I guess in an effort to ease the pain one of the fans asked me how we did in the race, I told him we all lost today. They will be missed, Louie

just got home from LI. NY.

my condolences to their families and friends. GOD SPEED.

extreme racing team. G-127 G-227

Just got home from work i am so sorry to hear the news.

I think Louie nailed it-"we all lost today" RIP

so sorry...R.I.P.

All racers know this type of awefull tragedy is hanging over our head. Race drivers have absolute confidence it won't happen,yet it does, rarely yet, predictably often enough to jolt all of us with a dose of reality.May their faimlys and frends find some peace of mind knowing they were fullfilling a dream they both shared.May God Rest Their souls.Yes Louie, we all lost this race. They were much to young. Grumpy G

Great event....Louie did another outstanding job pulling everything together once again. It is sad things had to finish the way they did on Sunday. We will post a huge phoyto essay link to our website later this week of the event from start to finsh.

Here are some details from todays news here on Long Island. :(:(:(

Two boaters killed during Great South Bay race

BY PATRICK WHITTLE AND ERIK GERMAN |
August 25, 2008

Two people were killed yesterday afternoon when their high-speed racing boat flipped during the Battle on the Bay powerboat race in Great South Bay off the Village of Patchogue, Coast Guard officials said.

The accident claimed the lives of Kevin Graff, of Port Washington and Phil DeJana, of Bayville, who were racing a 37-foot twin-engine catamaran, race officials said.

The powerboat was going between 90 and 100 mph when it turned over, said Paul Pontieri, mayor of the Village of Patchogue, who was at the race.

Suffolk County police said they were still determining the cause of the incident, but several witnesses at the scene said the boat appeared to overturn while it made a southeastern turn on the race course.

"It's just tragic ... It doesn't get any worse than this," Pontieri said. "It's a dangerous sport."

The incident occurred at about 4:30 p.m. due south of Shorefront Park, where spectators gathered to watch the event.

The race came to an abrupt end after the incident as the injured racers were removed and a crowd of several dozen people gathered on the shore as a Suffolk County police tow boat pulled the damaged vessel to the dock. Emergency officials remained on the scene near Shorefront Park in Patchogue yesterday evening. Flags in the park were lowered to half-staff.

An eight-foot gash was visible on the right rear side of the boat when the craft was removed from the dock.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Jeremy Clouse, coxswain of a 25-foot response boat on scene, said, "We were enforcing the security zone around the race and I noticed the water going everywhere."

Clouse continued: "The other 25-foot boat crew was already at the wreck, with two Coast Guardsmen in the water trying to do what they could to get the people out. One of the race helicopters dropped a diver who was able to get the emergency hatch open and pull the victims out."

The two men were transferred to a local fire response boat, which took them to Emergency Medical Service personnel waiting on the shore.

Both were pronounced dead at a hospital, officials said.

Jim Poplin, the race's safety director, said the cause of the crash was under investigation by the Offshore Performance Association, the sanctioning body that oversees the race. Poplin said workers for the association will take the boat apart and reconstruct it to see where the failure was.

"We had a high-speed racing accident. You attribute these things to speed," he said.

Several witnesses said they had met Graff and DeJana, members of a Port Washington-based boat racing team, on Saturday, when many of the racers, with their machines aboard trailers, parked on Patchogue's main street.

The two men operated a craft emblazoned with the names Aero Express and DeJana Industries. Kim Mellon, 40, of Holbrook, said her daughter Dayna, 7, had wished one of the drivers good luck and he'd given the girl a stick-on tattoo with his team name on it. "He even said I was his favorite," Dayna said, crying as she watched from shore.

The race - a weekend-long event held in the bay between Patchogue and Fire Island - was wrapping up with a full day of races yesterday.

Between 40 and 50 took to the waves during the event, sponsored by Great South Bay Racing Inc., OPA Racing and the Village of Patchogue.

He said more than 5,000 spectators watched the race from the shore and at least another 500 watched from their own boats.

Carole Rohde of Patchogue and other witnesses said it was difficult to tell what happened because the incident occurred well offshore.

"Bango, the race stopped," Rohde said. "We watched, and all of a sudden a police boat or something comes running onto the dock with obviously a patient on board."

Emerson Clarridge, Robert Wargas and Staff writer Jennifer Maloney contributed to this story.

THE EVENT

The Battle on the Bay is part of a series of boat races called the Miss Geico Triple Crown Series. The other races are in Ocean City, Md., and Point Pleasant, N.J. An ad for the race said yesterday, the final day of the event, would bring "the biggest names in offshore racing swinging it out" for cash prizes.

Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri said this was the second time the race has been on the Great South Bay off Patchogue.

Yesterday's event included three races, the first of which was scheduled to begin at noon and the last at 3:15 p.m.

The races took place in a course on the bay, with spectators watching from shore and from their own boats. According to the race's official Web site: "Each turn of the race has a 'Turn Boat' with Race Officials on board keeping track of the racers and their performance ... When the event is done all times and distance traveled are calculated to determine the winner."

we at predator powerboats inc give's our prayers and condolances to the family and the friends of the 2 men who were involved in this terrible accident! may they rip!

we were there at the festivities from begining to end, i have to say it was a great weekend -sun shining and happy people,nice boats and racers from all around but it ended in sadness.:(

us and some people are wondering what the future hold now for "battle on the bay" and possably other powerboat races for long island? as we know patchogue hasn't had races like this untill it started last season. - i guess we all have to wait...

May God Speed Aero Express


Mike

Our condolences go out to the Families of Aero Express Racing. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, we are sorry for your lose.

We were there watching also. What a tragedy and our prayers are with their families.

my deepest simphties to the families my god watch over you

Thoughts and prayers to the racer's and their families. Very, very sad news. Sounds like the proper medics, divers, patrol boats, etc were in place just unfortunate circumstances led to their passing. A big thank you to those who responded and did the best that you could. Unfortunately, some things are just out of our hands...

To the family and friends of Aero Express;so sorry for your loss.Phil and Kevin GODSPEED.

Phil was my Uncle, Kevin was his best friend. My uncle has been racing boats for 30 years. If this boat wasn't cut out for this race, then why would he try? I don't understand. If anyone has details on this type of accident, can you please tell me how with all the safety precautions, that he could die??

I read somewhere the windshield blew out? True? Not true?

Just trying to find some answers, even though I know there are none.

RIP Uncle Phil and Kevin

Our Deepest condolences to the family and friends of the team, what a terrible loss!

Bryan Haupt
D & M Motorsports
All Jacked Up

A bit more info from Newsday........

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny...,2397001.story

Dejana, I am truely sorry for your loss your uncle was one Hell of a nice guy always said hello and remembered me................... MAY HE RIP....

Darren Luhrs

All of us from PEPPERS/ LUCAS OIL send our condolences and prayers to the Dejana and Graff families. You will be in our prayers.
Micheal Stancombe

Just picturing his face makes me smile. He really was the best. Thank you.

Please disregard ANYTHING posted on the hows and whys of this tragedy at this time. Eyewitness accounts of this type of accident are always skewed and in some cases embellished. Same thing goes for analysis after the fact except by professionals that can take a long hard look at the whole picture after the fact and come up with a reasonable cause and hopefully a way to prevent it in the future. I hope for your family's sake that an explanation will come out that will put your minds to rest. But it may not. God speed to your uncle and Kevin, our condolences to your family.

Thoughts and prayers to their families....RIP