The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed a Cessna 414 slammed into a residence in Colonia, N.J. around 11 a.m. (NBC 4 New York)
A small plane crashed into a home in Woodbridge, N.J., Tuesday, killing the pilot — a semiretired cardiologist who had a practice in Manhattan — and igniting a fire that spread to two other residences, officials said.
The eight-seat plane slammed into a house around 11 a.m. in the northern New Jersey community of Colonia, located in Woodbridge about 22 miles outside of New York City, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
Only the pilot was aboard the Cessna 414 on a foggy, drizzly morning, the authorities said.
Dr. Michael Schloss, 74, was piloting the plane from his home in Virginia to give a lecture, said Paul Dudley, the manager of Linden Airport. The aircraft crashed about five miles from the small suburban airport.
Dudley told the Daily News he knew Schloss for three decades, and he said the doctor was a “highly accomplished pilot” who was “exponentially qualified” to fly the plane. “He was a true gentleman," Dudley added.
The second floor of the home hit by the aircraft was “instantly destroyed,” Woodbridge Township Mayor John McCormac told The News. The residence was empty at the time of crash.
“The front of the house looked like it was brand new, but you could see the whole rest of the house — the flames coming out were just ridiculous,” McCormac told The News. “The houses on each side were badly burned,” he added, and likely uninhabitable.
No one was injured in any of the three homes, but a woman escaped from one of them, the mayor said. He added the plane narrowly missed Claremont Avenue Elementary School around the corner.
“Thank God it didn’t veer a tenth of a mile off,” McCormac said.
Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac answers questions from media about a Cessna 414 plane that crashed into a home on Tuesday. (Noah K. Murray/AP)
The two-engine plane began its journey in Leesburgh, Va., with a landing time scheduled for 10:58 a.m., ABC 7 reported.
At the time of the crash, Linden Airport reported that visibility had decreased from 10 to 2 miles between 10:55 a.m. and 11 a.m.
“It sounded really low. It started to sputter a little bit,” one witness told NBC News 4. “All of a sudden there was this huge explosion, of just this big bang, louder than any car crash I’ve ever heard.”
Investigators with the FAA were dispatched to the scene to investigate. The National Transportation Safety Board was also tasked with investigating and determining a probable cause of the fiery crash.
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