By Anne Levin

South Brunswick Police and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are asking residents and businesses if they have any recorded video footage related to the fatal helicopter crash last Thursday that took the life of a 44-year-old man.

Pilot Josef Yitzhak, an Israeli, had taken off from Princeton Airport in a single-engine Robinson R22 in the late afternoon when he crashed into the woods and landed in a stream off of Lakeview Avenue, on the border of Princeton and South Brunswick Township.

“We are asking for any video footage, on behalf of the NTSB investigator,” South Brunswick Police Lt. Gene Rickle wrote in an email on Monday. “We will continue to assist the NTSB, but the investigation is in their hands.”

The NTSB is also asking anyone in the Kingston, Princeton, Montgomery, and Franklin Township area who may have either seen or heard the helicopter or the crash, or have Ring doorbell video, to email investigator Aaron McCarter at witness@ntsb.gov.

At about 4:25 p.m. on August 31, multiple 911 calls came in to the South Brunswick Police Department reporting a helicopter crash near Route 27 and Lake Carnegie. A unit was dispatched to the area, along with a captain from the Kingston Fire Department. When they approached the helicopter, they were able to see that Yitzhak was partially submerged in the water, still inside.

They were able to lift the aircraft up, pull the pilot out, and bring him to the shoreline. But his injuries were so severe that life-saving efforts were not possible, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Yitzhak was alone in the helicopter, Rickle said.

Route 27 was closed for several hours after the accident.

The helicopter was removed from the stream on Saturday, September 2 by the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration. The Delaware and Raritan State Park has since been reopened in its entirety.

According to a LinkedIn profile for Josef-Ram Yitzhak, he was a flight instructor and commercial airline pilot whose experience included working for Aerojet in Africa.

The South Brunswick Police Department worked with the Israeli Consulate and Israeli police to notify Yitzhak’s family. “Chief Raymond Hayducka extends his deepest sympathy to the pilot’s family,” the police said in a statement.