Homes on Fire as Plane Crashes in New Jersey; Pilot Killed

Officials are trying to investigate what caused a deadly plane crash that burned at least three homes in Colonia, New Jersey -about 20 miles southwest of New York City.

The Federal Aviation Association said the Cessna 414 plane crashed into a home on Berkeley Avenue in Woodbridge Township at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

'No civilians hurt' – Officials

Woodbridge Township Mayor John E. McCormac noted that no civilians were hurt and that only the pilot was aboard the plane. The National Safety Board said the pilot, identified as Michael Schloss, died in the crash.

The plane took off from an airport in Virginia Tuesday morning and was set to land in at Linden Airport sometime shortly after noon time. A residence in the Colonia neighborhood directly hit the plane, which resulted in the blaze.

"The pilot was in communication with air traffic control and was cleared for an approach into Linden Airport; the airplane lost radar and lost communications with the airplane afterward," said NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt.

Linden Airport, the nearest site to the incident at the time of the crash, reported that the plane's visibility dropped from 10 miles to two miles between 10:55 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. Weather conditions also included calm winds, mist, and a ceiling of 700 feet.

A family of three, including a 5-year-old girl, was not home at the time, according to Mayor McCormac. It relieved the neighbors who panicked after noticing a car parked in the driveway. A woman next door managed to escape; however, her house sustained fire damage. Another house was also burned.

"Right now, we don't believe [the crash impacted any civilians on the ground]," McCormac said. The area is densely residential with tree-lined streets.

Witnesses: The plane had "loud house-shaking bang"

A neighbor in the area recalls hearing a plane that sounded low. Stephen Smith, who lives near the crash site, said he heard a "loud house-shaking bang."

He added the incident began to sputter a little bit. "All of a sudden there was this [loud] explosion, or just this big bang, louder than any car crash I've ever heard," Smith said.

A neighbor's door camera caught the plane flying eerily close to the ground before the crash.

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"We felt the [blow] and panicked. [We thought] a truck crashed into our house, or we just [felt] an earthquake," the neighbor wrote on Facebook. "Feeling incredibly lucky at the moment to escape this. Praying for the pilot and the families who were affected by this."

New Jersey's electric and gas company turned off the utilities for the homes in the immediate area as "a safety precaution," according to the mayor.

The cause of the incident is currently unknown. According to recording on LiveATC.Net, the traffic controller attempted to contact the flight crew, but there was no response.