Eleven days after a plane carrying four people crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Amagansett, police have called off the search for the remaining missing victim, East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said Wednesday afternoon.

As of 3 p.m., the Police Department suspended the search for William Maerov, whom Chief Sarlo identified as the missing victim. "It was a difficult decision," he said.

Chief Sarlo said in a statement that the Suffolk County medical examiner's office has positively identified the body found Friday amid the plane's wreckage as Jon Dollard, the 47-year-old pilot of the Piper PA-31 Navajo that crashed off the Amagansett shoreline during a storm on the afternoon of June 2. 

Mr. Maerov was the 22-year-old grandson of Bonnie and Ben Krupinski, who were also aboard the plane when it crashed into the ocean. Their bodies were found soon after the crash. The Krupinskis were both 70 years old. 

Police searched for the remaining two victims for five days — as much as they could, given difficult sea conditions — before they located the majority of the wreckage 40 to 45 feet underwater about a mile off Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett. The wreckage has been removed. 

"We have put a tremendous amount of man-hours and resources into this recovery effort," Chief Sarlo said Tuesday, "and we remain hopeful we will be able to recover the final missing victim, as we fully understand the importance to the family for closure with this terrible tragedy." He did not offer further explanation Wednesday afternoon as to why the search was suspended.

The National Transportation Safety Board is continuing its investigation into the cause of the crash. 

 

A bloom of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, has been detected in Mill Pond in Water Mill. The toxic algae also persist in Lake Agawam in Southampton, Roth Pond in Stony Brook, and Lake Ronkonkoma. 

Sampling conducted by officials at the State University at Stony Brook confirmed the presence of cyanobacteria in Mill Pond, according to a statement issued Friday by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services. Officials have advised residents not to use, swim, or wade in the affected waters and to keep pets and children away from the area. 

Though blue-green algae are naturally present in lakes and streams in low numbers, they can become abundant, forming blooms in shades of green, blue green, yellow, brown, or red. They may produce floating scums on the surface of the water or may cause it to take on a paintlike appearance. 

Contact with waters that appear scummy or discolored should be avoided. If contact does occur, one should rinse with clean water immediately, and seek medical attention if nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, skin, eye, or throat irritation, or allergic reactions or breathing difficulties occur after contact. 

The Health Department’s office of ecology can be called at 631-852-5760 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., or emailed at [email protected], to report a suspected blue-green algae bloom at a body of water that contains a Suffolk County-permitted bathing beach. To report a suspected cyanobacteria bloom in a body of water that does not contain a permitted bathing beach, residents have been asked to contact the Division of Water at the State Department of Environmental Conservation at 518-402-8179 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. or via email at [email protected]. 

The D.E.C.’s notification page for harmful algal blooms, at dec.ny.gov features a comprehensive list of affected water bodies.

Recovery efforts will resume Tuesday morning for the remaining missing wreckage from the June 2 plane crash off the Amagansett shoreline, East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said. 

Meanwhile, the families of the four victims asked that people keep a lookout and call police if they find anything. 

"If you are boating or beach walking and find anything you believe may assist the investigation into the plane crash on the ocean at Indian Wells Beach, please contact your local police department," the families said in a statement issued Monday and posted on the social media pages belonging to Krupinski family businesses. 

Ben and Bonnie Krupinski, a well-known philanthropic couple from East Hampton, died in the plane crash along with their 22-year-old grandson, William Maerov, and Jon Dollard, a pilot, when a Piper PA-31 Navajo crashed into the water about a mile and a half off Indian Wells Beach. 

The Krupinskis' bodies were immediately pulled from the water. A third body was found Friday amid the wreckage, which was first located Thursday about a mile off Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett. The fourth remained missing as of Monday. Police have not said whether it was that of Mr. Maerov or Mr. Dollard that was found, as they awaited a positive identification from the Suffolk County medical examiner's office. 

"If anything is found that could possibly be related to the crash at sea or on the beach please contact E.H.T.P.D. immediately at 631-537-7575," Chief Sarlo said. Dive teams were to return to the search zone Tuesday morning.

The majority of the wreckage has been removed from the sea floor after a police dive search. The chief said Friday that the plane is in about 40 to 45 feet of water, with about 3 to 5 feet of visibility for divers.

A commercial salvage company contracted by the National Transportation Safety Board took the wreckage to a secure location, where it is awaiting an N.T.S.B. investigation, Chief Sarlo said Monday.

Four lives were lost on Saturday afternoon when a private plane crashed into the ocean off Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett. The plane was on the way back to East Hampton after what was supposed to have been a quick trip to Newport, R.I.

A well-known East Hampton couple, Ben and Bonnie Krupinski, were on board with their 22-year-old grandson, William Maerov. Jon Dollard of Hampton Bays, 47, was the pilot. 

As of press time yesterday,  two bodies had been recovered. East Hampton Town police are awaiting word from the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s office before releasing their identities. Those missing are presumed dead. Mr. Dollard’s family said this week that he was one of them.

The families of the three passengers have arranged for services. Visiting hours will take place at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton from 4 to 8 p.m. today. Mr. Krupinski was an honorary member of the East Hampton Village Fire Department, which will hold Firematic services at 7 p.m. during that time. An interfaith service at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church will begin at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. Krupinski, a pilot himself for many years, owned the plane, a 1984 twin-engine Piper PA-31-350 Navajo. According to Flight Tracker, it left East Hampton Airport at around 11 a.m. and landed at Newport State Airport about 25 minutes later. Flight Tracker’s system recorded it leaving Newport a few hours later, at 2:16 p.m.

A second plane owned by Mr. Krupinski, a single-engine Beech A36, left East Hampton for Newport just behind the Piper Navajo. That plane left Newport one minute earlier than the larger craft, and was last recorded by Flight Tracker as being near Montauk at 2:32 p.m. It landed safely. Police would not comment on who was aboard. 

The system picked up the Piper Navajo at 2:22 p.m. near Block Island, heading for the airport here. Mr. Krupinski had a hangar nearby, on Industrial Road. The control tower lost contact with the plane approximately three miles south of the airport, “with indications that it may have gone down,” East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said. He declined to give details as to what was said over the radio. The airport contacted police at about 2:50 p.m.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which will lead the investigation into the cause of the crash, reported that it occurred at 2:33 p.m. 

Flight Tracker’s radar shows how much the weather had changed since the planes departed for Newport in bright sunshine. Not long before the crash, the skies darkened over Amagansett and East Hampton as a powerful storm system moved in.

Michael Griffiths, an attorney who lives on Marine Boulevard, had been out jogging and was caught in blinding sheets of rain. He ducked into Vinnie’s Barber Shop in Amagansett Square to call his wife and have her come pick him up. Once safely home, he said, it only got worse. 

The thunderclaps were some of the loudest he had ever heard, he said. “I then saw the mother of all lightning strikes.” One or two more followed. He happened to note the time and later learned it was close to when the plane went down. 

Police Response 

“We immediately responded,” said Chief Sarlo, who was off duty at the time. A lieutenant called him immediately after taking the call from the airport.

Marine Patrol units and town and village police officers headed to the ocean beaches. A signal was issued through air and marine channels to be on the lookout for any sign of the plane. The Coast Guard sent cutters and helicopters, and the police dive team mobilized. Soon a county police helicopter and the Air National Guard, based in Westhampton, joined the search with parajumpers. East Hampton Town lifeguards, who had been waiting for the storm to break so they could continue with their Jet Ski training at Main Beach, were at the ready.

“Within five to 10 minutes, a private pleasure-fishing boat found what looked like some debris,” about a mile off Indian Wells Beach, Chief Sarlo said. A commercial fishing vessel in the area found some as well. “Over the course of the next hour or so, the vessels on the scene, out in the debris field, located two bodies.” 

With assistance from the boats, the lifeguards, aboard Jet Skis equipped with trail-behind sleds, were able to bring two bodies to a staging area onshore to await county medical examiner personnel.

Rescuers continued what Chief Sarlo described as a grid-pattern search by both air and sea. G.P.S. coordinates and markers were used in and around the area of the crash where debris was found, in the hope of pinpointing areas where larger portions of the wreckage may have sunk.

It was an “exhaustive search and a major undertaking,” Chief Sarlo said. At nightfall, police resources were pulled from the water for safety reasons, but Coast Guard cutters continued to search through the night while police combed the shoreline. 

On Sunday morning the search began again by air and sea. The Suffolk County Sheriff’s office took its East End Marine Task Force boat to the scene, while state parks police on all-terrain vehicles assisted with the shoreline search. Village police officers also patrolled the shoreline. 

With the current changing to the west, debris washed up Sunday on Main Beach and Georgica Beach all the way past the Southampton Town line, the chief said. All items found are being turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

“Everybody not only stepped up, but volunteered their services, took direction and went with it. Things went very smoothly from our end, in a very difficult situation,” Chief Sarlo said. 

The Coast Guard, based on its water-temperature timelines for survivability, suspended its search for survivors on Sunday afternoon, and it became a recovery effort. Faced with rough sea conditions, police temporarily stopped searching in the water, but were back out Tuesday afternoon. 

Sonar mapping is being used to narrow the scope of the area where the wreckage may be located. According to Chief Sarlo, parts of the plane could be about 40 to 60 feet deep. The commercial fishing boats have been helpful in showing detectives what was in the area before the crash and what may be there now, the chief said. 

Police will use a remotely operated underwater vehicle as soon as sea conditions cooperate, possibly today. The device sends images back to divers on a boat so that they know what is down below.

“We feel we have located the general area of the wreckage of the plane,” the chief said, but until the condition of the wreckage is known — how many pieces the plane is in, what is inside it — they will not decide how to proceed. 

There is a high likelihood that the two people missing were trapped inside the plane, Chief Sarlo said. 

“We would like to locate them and put this part of the investigation to bed as quickly as possible,” he said. “We want closure for the families. I think the salvage of the plane itself is minor in the minds of the victims’ families.” Recovering their bodies so their families can “lay them to rest . . . that’s what our goal is.”

The three candidates vying for two East Hampton Village Board seats on June 19 — Arthur Graham and Bruce Siska, who are seeking re-election, and Rose Brown, a newcomer to the race who is Mr. Graham’s running mate — agree that wastewater treatment is one of the most pressing village issues. 

Surveyed this week, they said protecting water quality as well as creating workforce housing and revitalizing the business district were top initiatives. While Mr. Graham and Ms. Brown share the opinion that, after 16 years, the time has come for a new comprehensive plan for the village, Mr. Siska thinks the plan has for the most part maintained its saliency, with the exception of the zoning code, which, he said, could use strengthening.

Mr. Graham, who is known as Tiger, joined the board last year after winning the election to serve the final year of the late Elbert Edwards’s term. He described himself as an “activist who wants to take on new stuff,” and said tackling wastewater treatment would be one of his main objectives. Building a sewage treatment plant for the village would have a positive effect on a range of issues, he said, including safeguarding the ponds, making it possible to create more work-force housing, and increasing the number of restaurants and food stores in the commercial core.

“I am going to, come hell or high water, make sure that we get a sewage treatment plant here in the village,” Mr. Graham said. He acknowledged that a plant was not at the forefront of residents’ minds, and said, “Maybe I supply a little bit of vision and a little bit of impetus, and then the people can decide if they want to do it or not.”

Mr. Graham, who is one of the trustees who has taken the lead on the issue of the noise created by gas-powered leaf blowers, said he had met privately with landscapers and that he eventually foresees a partial ban on the devices. “I am not looking to limit the ability of landscapers to do their jobs. Cleaning up leaves in the fall, you have to have leaf blowers. The restrictions I envision would be Memorial Day to Labor Day kind of stuff,” he said.

As for his desire to review the comprehensive plan, Mr. Graham said those who created it “anticipated revisiting it in 10 or 15 years, and we haven’t. It’s time we do that.” Citing an obvious example of the plan’s being outdated, he said, it says it “would be a bad idea to spend money on more parking in the village.” 

“Obviously, that part of the plan needs to be changed. Whoever’s on the board can look at the plan and, with the community’s best interests at heart, say, ‘Change this, add to that.’ ” The village recently purchased property at 8 Osborne Lane for a parking lot.

Ms. Brown, who is a member of the East Hampton Village Design Review Board and the former chairwoman of the planning board, explained her candidacy. “As a younger person raising a family in the village, I have a different perspective and a different voice that would make the board more well rounded.” Asked to pinpoint a recent decision by the board with which she disagreed, she cited what she called dismissive treatment of the village’s inns, which are looking to provide more indoor amenities, such as gift shops or spa services. 

“The inns are a vital part of our history and our economy, and I don’t think that we should be myopic in thinking that if they’re not doing well, that’s not our problem,” she said. 

Ms. Brown said that in discussion with residents it had become clear that water quality was their highest priority. She said the village should follow East Hampton Town’s lead by requiring septic systems that reduce nitrogen for all new construction and major renovations. “That is something that we really need to act on now,” she said. She also cited Sag Harbor’s wastewater management system as an example of a longer-term solution the village should consider. Sag Harbor collects wastewater and sends it out to the bay.

“Tiger and I really hope to revitalize the downtown,” Ms. Brown added. “We would like to see more food shops, perhaps more restaurants. Everyone agrees that would bring more people into the village.” Some of her other priorities, she said, are sprucing up Herrick Park and finding a solution to the mess created by the stacks of free magazines that pop up in front of stores during the summer. “We need to encourage store owners to handle the magazines in a better way,” she said. 

Like her running mate, Ms. Brown is keen on updating the comprehensive plan with the idea of creating a clear-cut strategy for the future. “People get very nervous about change, but I think we have to look at 10 or 20 years from now. That’s really one of the reasons I’m running, I have a vested interest because if one of my kids or all three of my kids want to call this home, what is the village going to look like?” 

Mr. Siska has been involved in village government for 24 years, first as a member of the planning board, then as a member of the zoning board of appeals, and, since 2011, as a member of the board itself. Mr. Siska said water quality is the biggest issue for the village. He also called the village decision to create bio-swales at Town Pond and to protect the health of Hook Pond as laudable achievements during his tenure. Currently, he said, “We’re strongly looking at a septic system for the whole village core. That’s in committee now.”

Summing up the job of a trustee, he said, “We’re there to uphold the comprehensive plan and to make sure that everybody has their quality of life.” He criticized the idea of rethinking the whole comprehensive plan, however. “Why should we spend $100,000 to $200,000 to redo it when we’ve only got one small section that we’re having a problem with?” he asked. He identified the zoning code as the priority.

“The code is changing almost daily because of the money that is coming in. People want all kinds of variances. When I was on the zoning board, if you built a new house, you built it to code, that’s what we told them. Now they’re paying high-priced lawyers to plead their case before the zoning board.”

He also said his concern about the vibrancy of the downtown was focused on corporate businesses that make their money during the summer and then close up. “They don’t really give anything back to the village,” he said. The recently enacted village law that removed restrictions on takeout food stores, he said, was crafted with the hope that it would ease the way for mom-and-pop shops. “That way there could be an open sign instead of brown paper all over the windows during the wintertime. That would draw people into the village.” 

Another boon to the downtown, he said, would be to create more affordable apartments in second-floor spaces on Newtown Lane and Main Street. “If employees live there rather than traveling from Hampton Bays, they would support the village year round,” he said. 

Mr. Siska added, “My consensus is that people on the whole are happy with the way the village is being run. I think everything’s going all right.”

The deaths in Saturday’s small-plane accident of Ben and Bonnie Krupinski, their grandson, William Maerov, and Jon Dollard, a pilot who worked for Mr. Krupinski, claimed headlines as a harrowing tragedy. Yet beyond the raw shock for a relatively small town, the Krupinskis’ sudden absence resonated among a broad swath of intersecting communities.

The four were aboard a twin-engine Piper aircraft, headed to East Hampton Airport from Newport, R.I., when it crashed into the Atlantic off Amagansett’s Indian Wells Beach. Bodies of two of the victims were recovered quickly; those of the two others had not been found as of yesterday.

Less than a year ago, Mr. Maerov planned a joint surprise 70th birthday party for the Krupinskis. The ruse to get them there was an invitation to dinner at Martha Stewart’s Lily Pond Lane house, which Mr. Krupinski had renovated. It worked.

Like his future wife, Bernard Krupinski grew up here, a son of a shopkeeper whose store on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton as far back as the 1940s was known as Benny’s. 

Mrs. Krupinski was a daughter of Peter and Mary Bistrian, one of seven siblings in an Amagansett family that had the great foresight to buy up land in East Hampton, Amagansett, and on Napeague early on. They met, according to local lore, in high school and became sweethearts. 

After a few years of college, Mr. Krupinski worked in Pete Bistrian’s sand and gravel business before going into the construction of houses. 

Mrs. Krupinski attended college briefly, then returned to have her first child and help her mom with her younger siblings. She then worked in the family business, over time becoming the family’s no-nonsense force who could simply get things done. Her sister Barbara Borg of East Hampton said that of all the children it was Bonnie who was most like her father.

The first Bistrians in East Hampton, Mrs. Borg said, were her grandparents, who came as farmers in the early 20th century, buying land on Newtown Lane in East Hampton. Their house remains in the family.

Mrs. Krupinski drifted into keeping an eye on local government in the late 1970s, as her father battled to open a golf course designed by Ben Crenshaw on land he owned on high ground north of Amagansett.

Over the years, she was a frequent presence at East Hampton Town meetings, sometimes articulating positions at odds with officials. She never contemplated seeking elected office, Mrs. Borg said, though at the time of her death she was a member of the town’s airport management advisory committee.

With her help, her husband built his business into a multifaceted company, with enterprises including an aircraft services company and restaurants such as the highly acclaimed 1770 House and Cittanuova in East Hampton and East Hampton Point, a restaurant, hotel, and marina on Three Mile Harbor.

As their companies prospered, the Krupinskis became philanthropists, donating the labor and often the materials for a range of projects. These included the Parsons House in Springs, which houses the hamlet’s library, the Amagansett Life-Saving Station, a major renovation of Guild Hall in East Hampton, and the reconstruction of the Amagansett Presbyterian Church’s Scoville Hall after it was destroyed in a fire.

Perhaps Ben Krupinski Builder’s most visible project was the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, designed by Herzog and de Meuron Architects and completed in 2012. In a statement, Terrie Sultan, the museum’s director, said, “We could not have succeeded without Ben’s principled guidance, and more important, his commitment and friendship in seeing this beautiful and complex project through to completion.”

“Ben Krupinski and the team at BKB worked so closely with the architects at Herzog and de Meuron and the Parrish staff and trustees, that the entire project was like one big family,” she said.

Richard Plotkin, one of Mr. and Mrs. Krupinski’s many East Hampton friends, said, “They are two of the most outstanding people I have ever had the privilege of associating with. They will surely be missed by all.” They were, he said, early supporters of the Max Cure Foundation, Mr. Plotkin’s family’s childhood cancer foundation.

Mr. Plotkin recalled a story told to him by Jim Stewart, the former East Hampton High School soccer coach, about what happened when the team was invited to participate in a tournament in Florida. 

Word got out that the parents of the players would have to pay for travel, room, and board, which was well beyond the means of most of the families.  Mr. Krupinski, after learning of the situation, reached out to Coach Stewart and asked how much was needed to cover the costs. He then wrote a check for the full amount, allowing the team to participate.

Among Mr. Krupinski’s lesser-known recent efforts was donating his services for the restoration of the George Fowler house, a Montaukett Indian’s home near where he had grown up on Springs-Fireplace Road.

Lona Rubenstein, a longtime East Hampton political consultant, remembered the Krupinkis as “the finest kind,” a localism for people and things held in high esteem.

“I am in shock and filled with great sadness at the loss of Ben and Bonnie Krupinski, their grandson William Maerov, and pilot Jon Dollard in yesterday’s tragic accident,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said. “Ben and Bonnie’s influence and generosity reached every corner of our community. They were fully committed to East Hampton, and they will be sorely missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, their friends, and family.”

Kathleen M. Doyle, a part-time East Hampton resident who is the chairwoman of the auction house Doyle New York, said that her family was devastated by the news of their deaths and those of Mr. Maerov and Mr. Dollard.

“They were good friends and such charitable and honorable people. Ben built two houses for our family. We are heartbroken at East Hampton’s loss. Ben was not just a builder of houses, he was a builder of our community,” she said.

Ruth Appelhof, who was the director of Guild Hall during the renovation, mourned what she called a terrible loss and said she was thankful for what Mr. and Mrs. Krupinski had done to make East Hampton vibrant and beautiful for years to come.

Jon Kenneth Dollard Jr.’s family and friends remembered him this week as a cautious pilot who loved working for Ben Krupinski. 

A commercial pilot since 2012, the 47-year-old had worked for Mr. Krupinski for approximately six years, his family said. His body is one of the two missing since a Saturday plane crash in the ocean, they said. 

“I get this very uneasy feeling that they haven’t found him. You don’t like him out there alone,” his father, Ken Dollard of Shoreham, said by phone on Tuesday. 

“If you knew him, he was really full of life. I can tell you this,” his father said. “Everybody I knew he knew; everybody held him in the highest regard.” 

A friend, Eric Lemonides, who said he got his pilot’s license around the same time as Mr. Dollard, called him “super cautious.” The two had flown together, and Mr. Dollard had been Mr. Lemonides’s safety pilot on many occasions. 

“He made me afraid of weather,” Mr. Lemonides said Tuesday, relating how Mr. Dollard had always said, “It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than be in the air wishing you were on the ground.”

Many people on the South Fork knew Mr. Dollard, whether through flying or from his days bartending and waiting tables at World Pie in Bridgehampton, where he had stopped in just days before the accident to say hello to the regulars. 

A Shoreham native, he graduated from Shoreham-Wading River High School in 1990. He attended Salisbury State University in Maryland, where he earned a degree in political science. He went on to work in restaurants, his father said, including Oakland’s in Hampton Bays.

“He wanted to go flying,” said Mr. Dollard, a retired air traffic controller. “We talked it over, and the way he learned best was with a structured program, so he went to a flying school in Florida” for a year, before returning to Long Island. 

He worked for a time at Brookhaven Calabro Airport as a flight instructor and then applied for the position with Mr. Krupinski about six years ago, his father recalled. “He liked the people. He liked Ben a lot,” he said. 

He flew often to Philadelphia, Boston, and Newport, R.I., his father said. “He was good at it, too.” 

His younger brother, Christopher Dollard, a former Navy pilot, remembered him as generous, funny, and “an overall good guy.” 

“He didn’t make a ton of money, but he tipped well — he was the best tipper around,” he said. 

In addition to his father and brother, his wife, Ana Sanchez Dollard, who was said to be too upset to talk, and his mother, Jean Dollard, survive him. Two other brothers, Todd Dollard of Syracuse and Jason Dollard of Alaska, as well as nieces and nephews, also survive.

While investigators still look for two missing people from a plane that crashed off the Amagansett shoreline Saturday, the victims' families are planning a memorial service.

"We are heartbroken to announce the tragic loss of Ben and Bonnie, their grandson Will, and our colleague Jon, on June 2, 2018," said an announcement posted on the social media accounts belonging to Ben Krupinski's restaurants and construction company. "The Krupinski, Bistrian, Maerov, and Dollard families are grateful for the sincere outpouring of support from so many who knew and loved them."

Mr. Krupinski, his wife, Bonnie Bistrian Krupinski, their 22-year-old grandson, William Maerov, and their pilot, Jon Dollard, were aboard a twin-engine Piper PA-31 Navajo headed for East Hampton Airport when it plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean. Rescuers soon found debris about a mile and a half from Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett.

Two bodies were later recovered, while two are still missing. Police would not identify who was found and who was still missing. A search of the water was temporarily suspended because of sea conditions Sunday afternoon.

"We extend our deep appreciation to the U.S. Coast Guard and other emergency responders on land, sea, and air, including the East Hampton Town Police Department and scores of others," according to the statement posted on the social media pages of the 1770 House and Ben Krupinski Builder. The couple also owned Cittanuova and East Hampton Point and were part owners of the East Hampton Golf Club.

The couple gave to many local charities, from the East Hampton Library to the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society, from the Amagansett Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station to Guild Hall, and Mr. Krupinski often donated his construction company’s time for some of those organizations’ construction and restoration efforts. 

"In honor of Ben and Bonnie, with whom we have been fortunate to work as members of their extended family, we continue their commitment to delivering excellence in service to all of you in the community," the statement said. 

A memorial service will be announced in the coming weeks.

Update, 11:50 p.m.: Late Saturday evening, East Hampton Town police released the names of the people aboard the small plane that crashed off Amagansett Saturday afternoon. 

Bernard (Ben) Krupinski, an East Hampton custom home builder, his wife, Bonnie Bistrian Krupinski, and their grandson, William Maerov, 22, were passengers aboard the twin-engine Piper PA-31 Navajo, police said. Jon Dollard, 47, of Hampton Bays was identified as the pilot.

Mr. and Ms. Krupinski, both 70, were the owners of three East Hampton restaurants — the 1770 House, Cittanuova, and East Hampton Point — and, along with her family, of the East Hampton Golf Club. They were also well-known community supporters and philanthropists. 

Two of the bodies were recovered, while the other two are still missing. Town Police Capt. Chris Anderson said in a statement that police were withholding information on whose bodies had been found until confirmation from the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's office. 

The plane, owned by Mr. Krupinski, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean at 2:54 p.m. With four people aboard, the plane lost communication with the East Hampton Airport control tower and then failed to land at the airport. 

Private fishing vessels, the United States Coast Guard, and East Hampton Town Marine Patrol units joined in a search and located a debris field about 1.5 miles south of Amagansett's Indian Wells Beach a short time later, police said.

Captain Anderson said the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the crash. "Extreme weather was reported in the East Hampton area at the time of the crash," he said in the statement. 

Town police and the Coast Guard have temporarily suspended the search for the aircraft and the missing bodies until daybreak, police said late Saturday night. 

Update, 9:30 p.m.: The search for two missing people from a plane crash off the Amagansett shoreline Saturday afternoon will continue into the night, weather permitting, a United States Coast Guard spokesman said Saturday evening. 

There were four people onboard a Piper PA-31 Navajo aircraft that lost communication with East Hampton Airport around 2:50 p.m. Debris was found about a mile off Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, and two bodies were recovered earlier in the evening. 

Despite published reports, police and Coast Guard officials have not released the names of any of the victims. 

"Most of the units have stopped their search at sunset, including four divers from the East Hampton Town Police Department," Coast Guard Petty Officer Frank Iannazzo-Simmons said Saturday evening. Two Coast Guard cutters will continue to search throughout the night, depending on the weather.

There is a chance of showers and thunderstorms overnight, and a small-craft advisory may go into effect, he said.

The Coast Guard is planning to send an HC-144 aircraft from Coast Guard Station Cape Cod "to conduct a first-light search," as long as the weather cooperates Sunday morning, Officer Iannazzo-Simmons said. 

East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said that while the Coast Guard continues the search with its larger vessels throughout the night, a "full-scale operation will resume at daybreak."

Update, 5:10 p.m.: East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said that a small plane lost contact with East Hampton Airport about one mile south of the airport Saturday afternoon.

Private boats located a debris field off Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett soon after. 

The United States Coast Guard identified the plane as a Piper PA-31 Navajo aircraft traveling with four people on board. Their names were not released.

The Coast Guard reported that one person was recovered from the plane and a search was on for three missing people. 

Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound received a call at approximately 2:50 p.m. reporting that a small plane had crashed about a mile off Indian Wells Beach.

Sector Long Island Sound issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast notice to mariners, requesting boats in the area to keep a sharp lookout for the crashed plane and any survivors.

A rescue and recovery effort is underway with police, the Coast Guard, and the Air National Guard participating, the police chief said.

The Coast Guard responded with Coast Guard cutters and a Sikorsky MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod.

Coast Guard rescue crews are on scene conducting searches for survivors along with local agencies, fishing vessels, and shore units.

Anyone with information has been encouraged to contact the Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound command center at 203-468-4401 or on the radio at VHF-FM marine radio channel 16.

Originally, 3:56 p.m.: A plane crashed into the water off Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett Saturday afternoon.

East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo would confirm only that a plane had crashed and that police had set up a command post at Indian Wells Beach. 

East Hampton Airport reportedly lost communication with a small aircraft around 3 p.m. A debris field was found in the ocean off of Indian Wells Beach. 

The United States Coast Guard, the East Hampton Town police dive team, and the East Hampton Ocean Rescue Squad all were responding. 

This article will be updated with more information as it is available.

Seeking support for its plan to use part of a 24-acre site off the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike in Southampton Town as an impound yard for vehicles seized by its Police Department, Sag Harbor Village dispatched Police Chief Austin J. McGuire and Charles Voorhis, an environmental consultant, to a public hearing before the town’s planning board last Thursday. At the same time, concerned citizens and representatives of conservation groups spoke out against the proposal, which they believe would endanger the neighboring Long Pond Greenbelt. 

Chief McGuire laid out reasons why the new impound yard, which would entail paving an 80-by-60-foot area for 20 parking spaces, was a necessity. The Police Department now keeps impounded cars in a lot shared with the village’s Department of Public Works. In addition to being overcrowded, the lot is not secured, he said. “On more than one occasion, the police have found that people whose cars have been impounded have gone back to their cars to retrieve items, which is a no-no.”

Using the Southampton Town impound yard, which is in Hampton Bays, would be impractical, he said, because it is too far away and would cost manpower, by taking an officer out of the village, and money because Sag Harbor does not own a tow truck and would have to hire a firm to move cars there. 

When asked by Jacqui Lofaro, a planning board member, whether it made more sense to reconfigure the current impound yard rather than build a new one, Mr. McGuire said, “There’s only so much we can do with that area.” 

Mr. Voorhis, the managing partner of Nelson, Pope, and Voorhis, an environmental planning firm, provided the board with details of a study it had done on the project. The site was found to have been disturbed since at least 1962. At one point it was a landfill, and more recently it was used as a dumping ground for leaves during seasonal cleanups as well as for temporary parking for PSEG Long Island vehicles. 

In a nod to concerns that impounded cars may leak fluids that would endanger the greenbelt ecosystem, Mr. Voorhis said his firm has recommended that a bioswale designed to contain runoff from the paved lot be added to the plans. He also said that vehicles would be inspected and “anything that has the potential to leak will be addressed prior to it being brought to the yard.” He added that there also would be “a spill kit on the site, to be deployed should there be any concerns.” 

Addressing the impact the project might have on the eastern tiger salamander, an endangered species that breeds in ponds in the greenbelt, Mr. Voorhis noted that he had talked about it with the State Department of Environmental Conservation and explained the department’s criteria for deciding whether a project would pose a threat to the salamander. The D.E.C. looks “to preserve 100 percent of the existing suitable habitat within 535 feet of a breeding pond,” he said. Given that the impound yard would be 625 feet away from the nearest breeding pond, he said that setback would be observed. 

Another D.E.C. guideline is that 50 percent of a suitable upland habitat be preserved within 1,000 feet of a breeding pond. “This property would fall within that area,” Mr. Voorhis acknowledged, “but the key terminology is ‘suitable upland habitat.’ If the area is disturbed, if the soils are compacted, if there’s continuous activity, that is not considered suitable habitat.” In future meetings with the D.E.C., Mr. Voorhis predicted his firm would demonstrate that the village’s proposal satisfied that criterion.

Mr. Voorhis also said worries that the impound yard would ruin the view from the greenbelt nature trail there were unfounded because the yard would be at lower elevation and contained within a smaller space than the area where PSEG trucks are now parked. He also said his firm had looked into whether there were other properties owned by the village that could be used for an impound yard and found that none fit the bill. They “don’t have sufficient area, they’re currently undisturbed, or they’re close to neighboring residential areas.”

Several members of the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt attended the public hearing and spoke against the proposal. Peter Wilson, who is on the group’s board as well as a member of the Bridgehampton Citizens Advisory Committee, called the greenbelt “one of the jewels in the crown of the South Fork” and said the fact that it had been previously disturbed was not a justification for further impacting it. He read a letter from the citizens committee, which called the proposal a “highly inappropriate use for such a sensitive parcel” and “an eyesore for the main entrance to the village.”

Jean Dodds, the secretary-treasurer of Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, read a letter from the Group for the East End, another conservation alliance, which called the village’s plan “reckless” and said the greenbelt should be protected in its entirety.  

Upon taking her turn at the podium, Dai Dayton, the president of the Friends, stated that she had reached out to Sagaponack Mayor Donald Louchheim to find out how that hamlet deals with impounded cars.

 “They have one town police officer and when they impound cars they take them to Southampton,” Ms. Dayton said. “It doesn’t seem to be a problem. They don’t feel they have to have their own paved impound yard.” Ms. Dayton, who cited a report from the Nature Conservancy that said the greenbelt had one of the highest concentrations of rare species and natural communities anywhere in New York State, asked the board to not only deny the village’s proposal but to buy the land for preservation.

Dennis Finnerty, the chairman of the planning board, had the final word. “This application was originally intended as an administrative walk-on to be rubber-stamped without any public input,” he said, noting that Ms. Dayton had alerted him and caused the board to take a closer look and to allow the public to weigh in.

 “I must say, Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, your efforts are well organized. I can assure you that your message has been received.” That being said, however, Mr. Finnerty added that whether Southampton Town could prevent Sag Harbor Village from creating an impound yard on land it owns was debatable. “Our efforts may in fact be limited,” he said.