The Rockefeller family, after celebrating the 99th birthday of its billionaire patriarch David, is now planning a funeral for his doctor son after a morning plane wreck.

Richard Rockefeller died at the controls of his private Piper Meridian PA-46 when the single-engine craft crashed Friday in miserable weather conditions minutes after takeoff at Westchester County Airport.

Though several other flights were canceled due to the rain, fog and poor visibility, veteran pilot Rockefeller opted to take off at 8:08 a.m. from Runway 16 — and quickly dropped off the radar, authorities said.

Rockefeller, 65, was found dead amid wreckage of his plane, which barely missed hitting a house and building at Stratford Stables, just a half-mile from the White Plains airport.

The crash happened so quickly that Rockefeller never had time for a mayday call, officials said. A piece of the doomed plane’s wing dangled from a sheared pine tree as police in Purchase, N.Y., awaited the arrival of National Transportation Safety Board investigators.

Other large trees in the plane’s path were knocked askew, with one aircraft wheel thrown about 50 feet away from the main wreckage. No one on the ground was injured.

Rockefeller, the well-respected great-grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller Sr., was a regular flier and had decades of flight experience, according to a family spokesman.

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据美国媒体报道，美国时间的6月13日早上，美国著名亿万富翁大卫·洛克菲勒的儿子，65岁的理查德·洛克菲勒驾驶飞机时不幸坠机遇难。在这父亲节前夕，白发人送黑发人，对于99岁大卫·洛克菲勒来说是一个不小的打击。

报道称，理查德·洛克菲勒驾驶的单引擎飞机在早上8点08分在纽约州维斯切斯特郡的白原机场起飞。起飞后，飞机撞上机场西南部的树，10分钟后坠毁于纽约州立大学帕彻斯校园外的卡塔哥道上。65岁的理查德·洛克菲勒当场不治身亡。

据了解，65岁的理查德·洛克菲勒是亿万富翁大卫·洛克菲勒的儿子，他也是洛克菲勒家族最著名的富豪约翰·洛克菲勒(1839-1937)的重孙。而就在事发前一天(12日)，理查德驾驶私人飞机回到缅因州的家中为父亲庆祝99岁大寿，并与父亲共进晚餐。

洛克菲勒家族发言人弗雷泽·希特称：“这是一起可怕的悲剧，整个家族都震惊了。理查德是一名经验丰富的飞行员，他已有好几年驾驶飞机的经验。”