Investigators and tree workers Saturday cleared the site where an heir to the Rockefeller fortune died in the crash of his plane shortly after takeoff from the Westchester County Airport.
Workers had to clear heavy branches before they could remove the fuselage of Dr. Richard Rockefeller’s single-engine Piper Malibu Meridian, which crashed Friday morning near Cottage Avenue in Harrison, about a half-mile from the airport’s main runway.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigator had no information about the cause of the crash.
Rockefeller, 65, the married father of two grown children, had been in Westchester having a pre-Father’s Day meal with his father, David, who turned 99 on Friday.
The philanthropist was the only person aboard the plane. He was bound for Portland, Maine, near his Falmouth home.
He didn’t broadcast an emergency call before the crash, which happened just minutes into the flight.
The family has not yet set funeral arrangements, a spokesman said.
Rockefeller, who once practiced medicine in Portland, was active in the Doctors Without Borders charity, and worked with veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.