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Hudson plane crash survivors were minutes from death, rescuer says

Originally published: January 28, 2013 8:44 AM
Updated: January 29, 2013 6:49 AM
By TIMOTHY O'CONNOR  timothy.oconnor@cablevision.com

Yonkers police officers rescued a pilot and a

Photo credit: Yonkers Police Department | Yonkers police officers rescued a pilot and a passenger after a small plane crashed into the Hudson River off Yonkers. (Jan. 27, 2013)

Five more minutes.

That's about all airplane pilot Deniece de Priester Kok and her passenger Christopher Smidt had left in them before a boat full of Yonkers police saved them from the frozen Hudson River on Sunday night, said one of the rescuers, retired Yonkers Police Detective George Farrell.

"That would have been it," he told Newsday on Monday night. "They would have slipped into...

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