From New York Post:
A Queens restaurateur who survived a fatal plane crash is erecting a massive shrine to the saint he said saved him from a watery death.
Giuseppe “Joe” Oppedisano had been dreaming of erecting the Padre Pio Shrine since the Italian saint appeared to him while in a morphine-induced delirium in the wake of the 2020 tragedy that left his entire body broken and one of his best friends dead. Oppedisano was piloting his single-engine Cessna on Oct. 4, 2020 with longtime friends Jose Urena and his girlfriend, Maggie O’Neill, on board after a lunch in Nantucket and was preparing to land in the East River when a boat suddenly blocked his path. The plane skipped across the water and smashed into a concrete pier before splitting into pieces.