text: EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — A prominent builder for celebrities' homes was identified by authorities Sunday as being one of four people on board a small plane that crashed off the coast of Long Island, killing two and leaving two missing. 
   
   East Hampton Town Police identified the people as 70-year-old builder Bernard Krupinski, 70-year-old Bonnie Krupinski, 22-year-old William Maerov and 47-year-old Jon Dollard. 
   
   The Federal Aviation Administration said the Piper PA31 aircraft that the four people were in went down about 3 p.m. Saturday. The crash scene was about a mile and a half (2.4 kilometers) south of East Hampton. Saturday's weather included severe thunderstorms in the area. 
   
   Two bodies were recovered, and the Coast Guard on Sunday resumed the search for the other two people before suspending it. It was not immediately clear which of the four passengers had been recovered. 
   
   The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash. 
   
   Eastern Long Island is known for its celebrity presence, with many wealthy and prominent individuals spending time there, particularly in the summer months. 
   
   Small planes and helicopters are popular, as a way to avoid the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Long Island Expressway. 
   
   Bernard Krupinski grew up in East Hampton before starting his business, Ben Krupinski Builders, there. As a builder, his clients included Martha Stewart and Billy Joel. ||||| Roadblock at Indian Wells Beach as search continues offshore for two victims of #Amagansett, LI plane crash. Two male bodies recovered amid debris field. Police not confirming identities of those onboard Piper twin-engine turboprop. @ABC7NY pic.twitter.com/r42Dc7xy6w — N. J. Burkett (@njburkett7) June 3, 2018 
   
   The bodies of two men were recovered amid floating wreckage after a small plane crashed off of a Long Island beach.The FAA reports the aircraft crashed two miles off the shore of Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett just before 3 p.m. Saturday.The plane was a Piper PA31 Navajo twin-engine aircraft with four people on board including the pilot, reports the Coast Guard.The plane was en route to East Hampton Airport, when it appears to have flown directly into a thunderstorm. When the plane fell off the radar screens, controllers called police.The NTSB has yet to determine the exact cause of the crash.Authorities are refusing to identify the victims who were pulled from the water.The Coast Guard will continue to search throughout the night for the two missing passengers on board the plane.---------- ||||| Four people were presumed dead after a private plane — carrying a prominent East Hampton builder who crafted luxury mansions for Martha Stewart, Billy Joel and others — crashed into the Atlantic off Amagansett, LI, on Saturday. 
   
   Hamptons “Builder to the Stars” Ben Krupinski, 70, was feared among the dead, along with his wife, Bonnie Bistrian Krupinski, 70, and their 22-year-old grandson, Will Maerov. East Hampton police confirmed the trio were aboard the flight, along with 47-year-old pilot Jon Dollard. 
   
   All are believed to have perished in the crash, sources said. 
   
   The Piper PA-31 Navajo plane went down about a mile off shore near Indian Wells Beach at about 2:50 p.m., officials told The Post. 
   
   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 Citta Nuova, where grieving workers and patrons gathered Saturday night in shock, some in tears. 
   
   see also Bodies recovered from plane crash off Long Island coast A plane with four people aboard crashed into the Atlantic... 
   
   The couple, known and loved by locals as “Bennie and Bonnie” — high-school sweethearts well known for their charitable endeavors — had been expected there for dinner that night. 
   
   Instead, the restaurant was shuttered, a sign explaining that the closing was “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 ­recovered by Saturday night, the U.S. Coast Guard said. 
   
   One was recovered by an East Hampton lifeguard using a Jet Ski, and the other by the Coast Guard, an agency spokeswoman for the Coast Guard told Newsday. 
   
   A pocketbook was plucked from the water by commercial fisherman Dave Aripotch, who told Newsday he responded to the scene after mariners were given 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. 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 Ben Krupinski would often be at the controls of the 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 with lifestyles queen Stewart, “he took his plane and got her” when she was released from prison in 2005, ­Wallace added. 
   
   Local resident Bob Miller said, “It’s so sad. It was Ben and Bonnie? That’s so sad. He’s been very involved for decades. Incredibly highly regarded. He’s been a builder out here for a long, long time. I’ve never heard a bad thing about him out here.” 
   
   “We are stricken by this loss,” said Coast Guard Capt. Kevin B. Reed, commander Sector Long Island Sound. 
   
   “Our deepest sympathies go out to the families and loved ones of the two recovered individuals.” 
   
   Krupinski’s only child, Laura Krupinski, 52, is a former Wilhelmina model who once publicly accused her father of having an affair with Stewart. 
   
   Grandson Maerov had just started a job with ad agency Chandelier Creative, according to a post on his Facebook page. 
   
   The crown jewel of Ben Krupinski’s real-estate empire was East Hampton Point, a five-acre property with a 400-seat restaurant facing Three Mile Harbor. 
   
   It included a full-service marina, boatyard, 14 guest houses, a pool and tennis courts. 
   
   In 2015 he began building for Waters a 14,000-square-foot house with a swimming pool, a pool house and a sunken tennis court. 
   
   Among the properties on which Ben worked for Stewart was a cottage and a 24-room manse, for which he was said to have created a hidden kitchen-exhaust system. 
   
   In 1989, Krupinski renovated Bill Joel’s 12,000-square-foot Amagansett home. 
   
   Saturday’s tragedy was the second small-plane crash on Long Island in less than a week. On Wednesday, a World War II-era plane plummeted into the woods of Melville, killing its only ­occupant.
target: – A go-to builder for celebrity Hamptons getaways is feared dead after a plane went down off the coast of Amagansett, Long Island on Saturday. Ben Krupinski, whose clients included Martha Stewart and Billy Joel, was aboard the Piper PA-31 Navajo along with his wife, Bonnie, and grandson Will Maerov, 22. The pilot was 47-year-old Jon Dollard, who authorities say flew the Krupinski's plane into an unexpected storm, per ABC 7. However, the NTSB has not yet determined the exact cause of the crash. Two bodies were recovered and the Coast Guard on Sunday resumed the search for the other two people before suspending it, the AP reports. It was not immediately clear which of the four passengers had been recovered. Bernard Krupinski grew up in East Hampton before starting his business, Ben Krupinski Builders, there. He and Bonnie were prominent members of the community, where they were beloved for their well-known philanthropy. According to the New York Post, the couple owned a real-estate empire worth some $150 million. Eastern Long Island is known for its celebrity presence, with many wealthy and prominent individuals spending time there, particularly in the summer months. Small planes and helicopters are popular, as a way to avoid the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Long Island Expressway.