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The statement said the plane had turned back toward the airport to make an emergency landing but crashed at 2:58 p.m. near an intersection in North Lindenhurst not far from the Long Island Rail Road track.

Tom Altieri told Newsday he was getting out of his vehicle around 3 p.m. to enter his home in North Lindenhurst when he noticed a small plane unusually “low and slow.”

Ruckert mostly played wide receiver at Lindenhurst High School and chose to play at Ohio State because he knew he was still learning, especially at tight end - the position at which he was best suited to play in college.

The Lindenhurst native was often decked out in Jets gear as a kid and rooted for players such as Darrelle Revis, Leon Washington and D’Brickashaw Ferguson in the mid- to late-2000s - when the NFL was little more than a dream.

The Lindenhurst native was often decked out in Jets gear as a kid and rooted for players such as Darrelle Revis, Leon Washington and D’Brickashaw Ferguson in the mid- to late-2000s — when the NFL was little more than a dream.