Pilot Avoided Athletic Fields With Kids In Cresskill Crash Landing: Report

Jack Rosenberg said the split-second decision he made to avoid landing his small plane in an athletic field filled with kids was worth the pain he’s endured since.

Rosenberg, a Coast Guard Auxiliary pilot, broke both legs, received stitches on his face, and has a foot that’s being held together by pins, said that if he would’ve killed one of those kids on the field, he would have never forgiven himself, he told The Record.

“I’m just not going to land the plane on their heads,” Rosenberg said in the report. “I can’t do that. If I get killed, one guy gets killed. If I kill kids — they still have a whole life.”

The Cessna 172 crash-landed on an empty Cresskill field Thursday behind the Cresskill Swim Club. Rosenberg and Erik Pearson were seriously injured in the crash. The men were doing patrols over the Hudson River when the plane began experiencing mechanical problems.

Rosenberg tried to land on the Hudson River, but couldn’t make it, according to published reports.