PLANE TRAGEDY IN HAMPTONS
‘Builder to the stars,’ 3 others, killed in Atlantic crash
East Hampton “Builder to the Stars” Ben Krupinski and wife Bonnie were killed along with their grandson and a pilot in the crash of a small plane off Long Island yesterday.
Four people are presumed dead after a private plane carrying a prominent East Hampton builder — who crafted luxury mansions for Martha Stewart and Billy Joel — along with his wife and grandson crashed into the Atlantic off Amagansett, LI, on Saturday.
Hamptons “Builder to the Stars” Ben Krupinski, 70, had been on board, along with his wife, Bonnie Bistrian Krupinski, 70, and their grandson, Will Maerov, 22, East Hampton police said.
The plane’s pilot, Jon Dollard, 47, of Hampton Bays, was also believed to have perished.
The Piper PA-31 Navajo went down about a mile off shore near Indian Wells Beach at about 2:50 p.m., officials said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, but local pilot Bill Gardiner noted that the weather had turned stormy.
“There was a very nasty thunderstorm going on. It was unexpected. There were very strong downdrafts.”
The Krupinskis had owned the plane since at least the 1980s, Gardiner added.
The couple’s real-estate empire is worth a reported $150 million, and included the popular East Hampton restaurant CittaNuova, where grieving workers and patrons gathered Saturday night in shock, some in tears.
The couple, known and loved by locals as “Bennie and Bonnie” — high-school sweethearts known for their charitable endeavors — had been expected there for dinner that night.
Instead, the restaurant bore a sign explaining that it was closed “due to a family emergency.”
“They were generous beyond belief,” sobbed longtime employee Jeanne Nielsen.
“They were very philanthropic . . . their grandson, Will, had worked here for the summer in the past. He was a student at Georgetown,” she said.
“Their granddaughter, Charlotte, is 15 or 16. She was not on the plane. She was going to work here this summer.”
The family “flew all the time,” Nielsen said. “They were coming here for dinner tonight, and then going to the movies. Their plane was supposed to land at 3.”
She added, still crying, “They were together forever. They were the couple that was together forever.”
As for the restaurant’s workers, Nielsen said, “We’re broken. All of us.”
Cops blockading the couple’s home on Three Mile Harbor Road asked a reporter to give the family privacy.
Two bodies were reported recovered by Saturday night.
One was found by an East Hampton lifeguard on a Jet Ski, and the other by the Coast Guard, an agency spokeswoman told Newsday.
A pocketbook was plucked from the water by commercial fisherman Dave Aripotch, who told Newsday he responded to the scene after mariners received notice of the crash.
“I wish we could have got there sooner,” he said of seeing a piece of the plane’s nose in the water.
Ben Krupinski, an East Hampton native, pilot and golf lover, rose to prominence building lavish homes for Stewart, Joel and rocker Roger Waters of Pink Floyd.
He counted moguls such as Leon Black among his clients — but would pitch in and repair a broken sidewalk out of his own pocket, said those who knew him.
Fellow developer Joe Farrell called Krupinski “a legendary builder.”
“Truly a great builder that built the biggest and most expensive homes,” Farrell said. “I admired and respected him very much.
“His wife Bonnie was a Bistrian, and a huge land owner,” he said of the moneyed family.
“Bonnie sold me many lots,” Farrell recalled.
“Ben used to lend me his helicopter. He was very nice to me even though we were competitors.”
Famous adman Jerry Della Femina once told The New York Times, “In East Hampton, Ben’s the star. You walk into a restaurant and everyone’s looking up and saying, ‘It’s Ben! It’s Ben Krupinski!’ ”
East Hampton gallery owner Terry Wallace said Krupinski would often be at the controls of his plane.
“A lot of times he flies his own plane. He does a lot of things in the village,” Wallace said.
“He just finished the Ladies’ Village Improvement Society. If there’s a problem like the sidewalks, he’ll just fix it for nothing. He does a lot of things for nothing,” Wallace said. “They’re good people.” Krupinski was so close to lifestyle queen Stewart, “he took his plane and got her” when she was released from prison in 2005, Wallace added.