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Plane Crash: Home in New Jersey Hit by Cessna Plane Crash: Pilot Is Killed After Cessna Hits N.J. Home
(about 2 hours later)
A small plane crashed into a house in a suburban New Jersey town and burst into flames on Tuesday morning, federal officials said. A small plane had been spotted flying low on Tuesday morning just before it fell from the sky and through the roof of a suburban New Jersey home, officials said.
The plane, a Cessna 414, crashed into the home in Colonia around 11 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Two homes erupted in flames, according to the Colonia Fire Department. Fog and light drizzle blanketed the township of Woodbridge as the plane plummeted, clipping the tops of trees and the roof of one home before slamming into another, Mayor John E. McCormac said.
A local official said that no one on the ground near the crash, on Berkley Avenue, was injured, and that only a pilot had been aboard the plane. The plane pierced the roof of the second home before coming to rest in the basement, igniting a fire that quickly engulfed the two-story structure and spread to two adjacent homes, Mr. McCormac said.
Mayor John McCormac of Woodbridge Township, which includes Colonia, said the plane had come from Virginia and had been heading to Linden, N.J. The pilot, the sole occupant of the plane, was killed in the crash, according to a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.
“We don’t believe any civilians on the ground were impacted by the crash,” Mr. McCormac told NBC News. “It had to come in straight down,” Mr. McCormac said. “It’s miraculous that nobody was hurt on the ground.”
Officials at Linden Airport, a small municipal airport about five miles from Colonia, said they had no additional information about the plane or the crash. Colonia is about 25 miles south of Midtown Manhattan. The mayor said a neighbor described seeing the plane flying lower than normal just before hearing a deafening crash.
The Cessna went down in a quiet residential neighborhood, not far from an elementary school. Hours later, neighbors were still standing on front lawns and under tents that were set up by emergency workers. The second floor of one of the homes appeared to have been fully consumed by fire. The plane, which originated in Leesburg, Va., had been headed for Linden Airport, a municipal airport about 25 miles southwest of Midtown Manhattan, Mr. McCormac said.
The couple who lived in the home were at work, and their child was at school, Mr. McCormac said. The woman who lives in a neighboring house on Berkley Avenue in Colonia, which is part of Woodbridge, heard the noise and fled before the fire reached her home, he added.
“The house was completely engulfed,” he said. “Thank God no one was home.”
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board said investigators were headed to the site to investigate what caused the plane, a Cessna 414, to crash.
Officials at Linden Airport, which is about five miles northeast of Colonia, said they had no additional information about the plane or the crash.
The Cessna went down in a quiet residential neighborhood, not far from an elementary school. The school was not evacuated, but students were dismissed just after 1 p.m. because power was temporarily cut off in the area, officials said.
Hours after the crash, neighbors were still standing on front lawns and under tents that were set up by emergency workers.
“The house is half-missing, and it’s all black,” said David Kaca, 19, who returned home from class at Seton Hall University to find the neighborhood filled with smoke.“The house is half-missing, and it’s all black,” said David Kaca, 19, who returned home from class at Seton Hall University to find the neighborhood filled with smoke.
The F.A.A. said investigators were headed to Colonia to try to determine what had caused the accident.