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Witness says 'something broke off plane' before it nose-dived
BY NOAH COHEN
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Five people were killed when the small plane they were in broke apart and crashed in a snowy field near the Monmouth Executive Airport in Wall Township Monday, according to officials and local media reports.
Three men, a male teenager and a younger pre-teen male were killed in the crash, reported around 3:45 p.m., township police said. Emergency crews responding to 911 calls initially found three bodies near the plane's fuselage and later discovered two others inside the aircraft. Witnesses said five people were aboard the plane when it took off from the airport, police said in a statement released Monday night.
Police said the adult pilot had not been identified and declined to release additional information about the other victims before they were positively identified by the Monmouth County medical examiner.
The plane was based at the Monmouth airport, formally known as Allaire Airport, the police said. The Associated Press reported the plane was landing and relatives of the victims were at the airport but it was unclear if they had witnessed the crash.Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Alison Duquette said it was a private Cessna Skymaster 337 and said she did know the plane's exact use.
According to FAA records, the plane was registered to Jack Air LLC in Wilmington, Del.
Contact information for the company was not immediately available and it could not be reached for comment Monday night.
The National Transportation Safety Board will handle the investigation, she said.
Dana McNally, 39, of Wall, told the Asbury Park Press of Neptune that she saw the pilot trying to land the aircraft then abort the maneuver when something broke off the plane before it nose-dived into a field near the airport, the newspaper reported.
Duquette, the FAA spokeswoman, said she could not confirm that the plane broke apart.
There have more than 30 aviation incidents, including four deaths, in the area around the airport since 1962, according to an NTSB database.
It was not immediately clear if the incidents all occurred at the airport because the database lists cases by municipality. The airport's address is listed in Farmingdale, however, today's crash occurred in Wall.
An NTSB spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment late Monday night.
