A Beechcraft A36 crashed near White Plains, New York, and both men aboard were identified as Orthodox Jews from Cleveland. Photo by iStock/Ryan Fletcher

By Adam Kovac January 20, 2023

Two Jewish men were killed when their small plane crashed in New York on Thursday evening.

The pilot of the single-engine Beechcraft A36  reported engine issues at around 6:15 p.m. when the plane was roughly a mile from Westchester County Airport in White Plains, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. 

The plane had taken off from John F. Kennedy International Airport and was headed to Cuyahoga County Airport in Richmond Heights, Ohio.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Media reports identified the men as both being Orthodox Jews from the Cleveland area. The men were identified as pilot Boruch Taub and passenger Ben Chafetz in a Hamodia report which described them as “well known and popular in the Cleveland community.”

In 2018, Chafetz was a passenger on an El Al plane departing JFK Airport for Israel that was delayed. Several Orthodox Jews asked to disembark, fearing the plane would not arrive in time for Shabbat, but were forced to stay onboard. Chafetz later wrote an article detailing the incident, which involved the plane making a stop in Athens, Greece, to allow the Orthodox passengers to disembark in time for Shabbat, calling on El Al to learn some lessons from the incident. 

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. 

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount