Airplane Crash In New Jersey: 1 Dead, 3 Homes Damaged After Cessna Catches Fire

A small plane crashed in New Jersey on Tuesday, killing the pilot and engulfing three homes in flame.

The crash occurred around 11 a.m. when a Cessna 414 crashed in the Colonia-area of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. It crashed into an empty home before catching fire and engulfing both. The fire quickly spread and ignited two houses next to the crash site.

Two of the houses were empty at the time while one woman was home in the third, but she was reportedly unharmed.

“It sounded really low, it started to sputter a little bit,” a witness told New York local news station WNBC. “All of a sudden there was this huge explosion, or just this big bang, louder than any car crash I've ever heard.”

The plane had reportedly been in the air for an hour after leaving Leesburg Executive Airport in Virginia. It had been registered to Warbird Associates Inc. in Delaware and was bound for Linden Airport in New Jersey.

“There are no civilian casualties and that’s very fortunate,” Woodbridge Township Mayor John McCormac told reporters at the scene of the crash. He also said nine different fire departments from the surrounding area responded to the fires, saying “this is all-hands on deck.”

Public Service Enterprise Group shut down gas to four houses near the crash and cut power to another 400 in the area as a precaution to prevent further fires. The Federal Aviation Association and National Transportation Safety Board were also headed to New Jersey to begin investigating what may have caused the crash.