Exclusive | Plane in fatal Long Island crash had smoke in cockpit just weeks prior, says surviving daughter in lawsuit: Just fly the damn airplane

A fatal plane crash on Long Island that left a mother dead and her daughter gravely injured was “entirely preventable” following a federal crash report citing an electrical short as the likely culprit, an explosive new lawsuit claims. Despite smoke in the flight school plane’s cockpit twice just weeks prior, the troubled Long Island outfit refused to perform maintenance on the single-engine plane, the filing in Queens Supreme Court Friday contends. That lax attitude towards upkeep led to the fatal 2023 fire and crash in Lindenhurst that cost the lives of Roma Gupta, 63, and a young pilot — and left daughter Reeva Gupta, 33, motherless, disabled and traumatized, Reeva Gupta said.“My mother’s life was lost, and the pilot’s life was lost, and my life is forever changed because somebody wanted to make money,” she told The Post in an exclusive interview.Reeva Gupta is suing 2 BA Pilot NYC and parent company Danny Waizman Aviation — a Long Island flight school at Republic Airport in Farmingdale which operated the plane — for negligence and the wrongful death of her mother.The school’s operator, Queens resident Danny Waizman, hung up on a reporter when the 2023 crash was mentioned Monday.Reeva Gupta said that after she read the National Transportation Safety Board report — which says a leaky oil line likely caused the crash, and that two recent smoke incidents went ignored —  it was “clear” that Waizman was focused on “financial gain at the expense of people’s livelihood and lives.”“The person you want the most in the most terrible time, most excruciating pain, the sickest you’ve ever been in your life,” Reeva Gupta said.“That person you want is your mom, and that was robbed from me.”Reeva Gupta had purchased a Groupon for an introductory flight lesson — a lifelong dream of the mother-daughter — at the school.But as the flight was on its final approach on March 3, 2023, the plane — a Piper PA-28 — caught fire during...