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BRENDAN SCHURR, Associated Press

First published: Thursday, August 10, 2000 11 killed in collision of 2 small airplanes

House set afire as wreckage rains down on South Jersey community

BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Two planes collided in midair Wednesday, showering debris onto a southern New Jersey neighborhood and setting fire to house where the bulk of one plane crashed through the roof. Eleven passengers on the planes were killed.

The smell of jet fuel and smoke still permeated the neighborhood nine hours later. Plane pieces investigators had circled in orange paint dotted several blocks.

Two occupants of the house most heavily damaged escaped unharmed after the morning crash. One plane had crashed through their garage roof, burning the house and charring the yard to the street. The bodies of five victims were found inside.

"I heard a loud explosion, then a roar and the house shook, then immediately ignited,'' said Ed Trzaskawka, who escaped with his wife, Cathy, seconds later.

The Federal Aviation Administration was classifying the crash as a midair collision, said spokeswoman Arlene Salac. The agency and the National Transportation Safety Board were interviewing witnesses and examining wreckage to determine what happened.

One plane, a Piper Navajo, carried seven civilian Navy employees and two crew members for a private contractor, New Jersey State Police Maj. Barry Roberson said.

The flight was a daily shuttle from the Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station to Trenton and to Patuxent River Naval Air Station, about 60 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., said Lakehurst spokesman Lawrence Lyford.

Most of the passengers were from New Jersey; the crew members were employed by Patuxent Airways of California, Md., Roberson said.

The second plane, a Piper Seminole, carried a flight instructor and a student who was a licensed pilot working on a commerical license, officials said. The plane had taken off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

About 150 searchers spent Wednesday combing a 2-square-mile area for debris.

"It was horrible. It's so close to home,'' said neighbor Janet Brown. "It could have landed on the condos and engulfed more homes.''

In the Trzaskawka's house, support beams were visible and the garage walls and roof were gone. The garage was so charred, its contents were hard to distinguish from the plane's wreckage. A propeller and 12-foot section of what appeared to be a wing lay in the yard.

The intense fire burned the paint off the side of a neighboring house.

Based on flight records, investigators are certain they found all the victims. One of the bodies fell on a house two blocks from the house that burned, and five were found in nearby fields.

Specialists in radar, aircraft performance and operations will join representatives from the U.S. Navy and from the plane manufacturers to investigate the wreckage, said Robert Benzon, an NTSB investigator. The planes involved did not carry flight recording devices commonly known as "black boxes.''

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyKey=39260&category=F

-- (Dee360degree@aol.com), August 10, 2000