By Michael V. Cusenza
A Howard Beach resident, who surrendered his Certified Flight Instructor license after he was involved in a “forced aircraft sea landing” on Feb. 20, 2016 that resulted in the death of a student pilot, has been charged with providing flight instructions to student pilots last year at Republic Airport on Long Island without the required certification authorizing him to do so, federal prosecutors recently announced.
Nelson Gomez, 39, “was barred from conducting student instructions thereafter since [his] certification expired on June 30, 2016,” the complaint charges. However, two student pilots that were interviewed by U.S. Department of Transportation investigators noted that Gomez “had provided in-flight instructions that commenced and ended” at the Farmingdale airport a combined 30 times.
Additionally, according to the complaint, on June 29, 2017, Gomez was interviewed by Federal Aviation Administration Aviation Safety Inspectors and admitted that “he had made endorsements in Student Pilot’s 1 and 2’s logbooks and further admitted that he was aware he was not authorized to provide the students in-flight instructions when had.”
Gomez was arrested by federal agents last Wednesday morning and eventually released on $200,000 bond.
On Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, a small plane carrying Gomez and three student pilots made an emergency landing in Long Island Sound. According to a New York Post account of the incident, a student pilot was at the controls when the plane began experiencing engine trouble. Gomez took over, “but was forced to land the plane in Setauket Harbor around 11:05 p.m.”
Gerson Salmon-Negron, 23, a college student who lived in Elmhurst, died as a result of the crash.
