East Windsor Pilot Survives Freezing Hudson Plane Crash

Christopher Smidt of Colonia and Deniece Depriester Kok of East Windsor both miraculously survived a freezing plane crash into the Hudson Sunday night.

The icy, pitch black waters of the Hudson River was probably the last place Christopher Smidt of Edison thought he was going to be when he started out on a sightseeing tour Jan. 27. On Sunday night, 43-year-old Smidt had taken a ride in a small plane piloted by Deniece Depriester Kok of East Windsor. Wpix.com reported that the plane, a single-engine Piper PA-32, took off from Trenton-Robbinsville Airport. It wound up in the Hudson River near Yonkers around 5:20 pm Sunday when the plane crashed, according to a CBSlocal.com report. Smidt, who lives in the Colonia section of Woodbridge, survived the crash with Depriester Kok. Both were still in the plane, which was barely floating in the frigid water, and both had life preservers on, the …

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