Michael Yonone/Facebook(COLONIA, N.J.) — A Cessna 414 plane crashed into a suburban New Jersey home Tuesday morning, igniting a massive fire and completely destroying the house, local fire officials said.
The crash was in Colonia, about 22 miles outside of New York City. Video from the scene shows massive flames and plumes of smoke rising into the air.
No one was inside the house, but the blast caused heat and fire damages to both homes next door, according to Woodbridge police.
A woman was in one of those adjacent homes; she escaped uninjured after hearing the explosion, said police.
The pilot, the sole person on board, was killed, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
One neighbor told reported ABC New York station WABC that he heard the loud roar of the plane engine and what sounded like sputtering. He also heard shaking and a bang.
“I just can’t believe that this would happen on a street like this,” he said.
The explosion and flames “lit up the sky… everything was just a massive blaze,” another witness told WABC. “I went running down. I don’t know what I thought I was gonna do. Anybody who was home would not have had a chance.”
The fire has since been deemed under control, said John McCormac, mayor of Woodbridge Township. The plane had come to rest in the basement of the house, he said.
The plane took off in Virginia and was planning to land in Linden, New Jersey, according to police.
The plane was caught on a neighbor’s door camera flying eerily close to the ground before the crash.
“We felt the thump and panicked thinking that either a truck crashed into our house or we just experienced 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.”
Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) responded to the scene. The National Transportation Safety Board will also investigate, according to the FAA.
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