NJ Mother Killed In Plane Crash ID'd; Daughter 'Fighting For Life'

WHITEHOUSE STATION, NJ — A New Jersey woman who was killed in a Long Island plane crash, along with her daughter and a pilot who were injured, has been identified, Suffolk County Police said.

Roma Gupta, 63, of Whitehouse Station, and her 33-year-old daughter, of St. Davids, Pennsylvania, boarded a Piper PA 28 that took off at Republic Airport in Farmingdale at about 2:18 p.m. on Sunday.

The mother and daughter, had booked the flight through a Groupon, said Oleh N. Dekajlo, attorney for Danny Waizman Flight School at Republic Airport.

The plane’s pilot, Fayzul Chowdhury, 23, of the Bronx, issued a mayday signal a short time later, and indicated there was smoke in the cockpit, officials said.

The plane crashed soon after near the intersection of Wellwood Avenue and 5th Street.
Roma Gupta was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Reeva Gupta and Chowdhury were taken to Stony Brook University Hospital, where they both remain in critical condition, police said.

A GoFundMe titled "Support For the Family of Reeva and Roma Gupta" has raised $107,402 to help raise funds to help support Reeva and her family during this "unprecedented, trying" time.

"She faces a long, painful recovery, and her family, who needs to be at her bedside, lives far from eastern Long Island," the description said.

The fundraiser description said that the flight was to help fulfill "a long-standing wish" of theirs.
Reeva currently has third-degree burns and is "fighting for her life."

The experience was supposed to be a standard demonstration flight, for people who were interested in taking lessons, or just for fun, Dekajlo explained.

"These flights are very common, they're used as birthday gifts, employers give them to employees for bonuses," said Dekajlo.

He also said that Danny Waizman is a highly reputable school with strict standards.
"This specific flight school has graduated literally hundreds of pilots who go one to work for major airlines," he said.

Patch has reached out to the organizer of the GoFundMe for comment.