Queens pol ‘blessed’ after his plane’s engine lost power, forced emergency landing

A Queens state lawmaker says he has some divine intervention to thank for the miraculous emergency landing his small plane made Friday on a Long Island beach.

“I’m blessed,” Queens state assemblyman Clyde Vennell told The Post, a day after the craft managed to land safely on a small spit of exposed sand at low tide after a sudden power outage. .

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“I don’t know why God spared me, but I feel like I’m here for a reason.”

He said that 48-year-old Whannell was out for a walk with a friend on Friday when the engine of his Beechcraft suddenly failed.

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The elected official, whose 33rd Assembly District represents parts of southeast Queens, is an experienced recreational pilot who studied aviation at SUNY Farmingdale and flies once every few weeks, he said.

The sky was clear when Vannell and his friend took off from Brookhaven Airport in Suffolk County, and all was well, they said — until it wasn’t.

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“We were about 10 miles from the airport … over the water, clear day, nice weather, nothing crazy, nothing special,” he said.

In more than 10 years of flying, “I’ve never seen an engine failure before,” he said. “You train so much for it, the muscle memory kicks in.”

The emergency opened within minutes, as Venal realized that his engine was not getting any power.

“It stopped responding,” he said. “Imagine you’re driving and you’ve got your foot on the gas but you’re not accelerating.”

Said Whannell, who, anticipating a crash into a house, said he began making a list of emergency checks while looking for the best place to safely land the now-gliding plane.

“I knew I couldn’t come back to Brookhaven. Calverton [Executive Airpark] A little was near, but a little was looking away. then there was shore [Nuclear Power Plant] Closer to me, but I wasn’t quite sure I could make it past all the trees and houses,” he said.

Then they saw it: a tiny slip of sand, normally covered by water and now exposed at low tide.

“I definitely could have made it to the beach and no one was there,” Vannell said. “I knew I would damage the airplane if I landed on the beach, but I might be able to avoid it.”

A lone bird watcher videoed Vannell’s landing as he gently brought the plane down, its nose dragging along the side before the plane’s body slid down.

“I was very shaken,” said Vannell, who said he could not remember the exact moment, but immediately got himself and his friend out of the plane for fear of catching fire. “I’m still in a state of shock.”

While the plane is damaged – and as of Saturday, is still sitting on Shoreham beach – Whannell walked away with just a scratch on his chin.

With no cell reception on the beach, the bird watcher helped Whannell and his friend call the authorities. He hopes to retrieve the damaged plane on Sunday, and plans to fly again, saying that aviation “is in my DNA.”

“I’m going to speak more about training and safety now,” he said, crediting his training for keeping him alive. “I don’t know if it will save every situation but you can make a bad situation less bad.”

Additional reporting by Georgette Roberts