HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. — The New York teenager whose visit to the University of Rhode Island ended when her small plane crashed says she’s happy to be alive, and jokes that maybe the admissions office will sympathize after hearing what happened.

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Obergh was returning home Saturday in a single-engine plane piloted by her father, Louis Obergh, when it crashed on Long Island.

Rachel tells The Providence Journal (http://bit.ly/1QvuhAD ) that the engine stopped at about 2,000 feet. Her father told her to “hold on” and deployed the Cirrus SR22’s parachute.

The Wantagh High School senior says her life flashed before her eyes as they crash-landed in an industrial park. Then, her father told her to run, just in case.

The Cirrus SR22 aircraft went down in a grassy area in Hauppauge, about 45 miles from Manhattan, authorities said.

“It landed picture perfect on the lawn of a factory,” Hauppauge fire Chief Eugene Oliver said. “This was a happy ending.”

Pilot Louis Obergh and his teenage daughter, Rachel Obergh, had traveled to visit the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island, and were approaching Republic Airport in Farmingdale when they began to experience an engine-related issue, he told Newsday. The plane, which had a large parachute attached to it, crash-landed about 8 miles from the airport.

“We got very lucky,” he said. “I never expected to ever have a problem like this. … It’s a scary day.”

The fire chief said Obergh made it out of the plane with only a small scratch on his head.

“A Band-Aid would’ve taken care of that,” he said. “How lucky is that?”

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating. The National Transportation Safety Board will try to determine what caused the crash.

She says URI is still on her college list, despite what happened.

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