Update: Chicago-bound corporate jet skids off New Jersey runway
Associated Press Updated at noon.
Posted Wednesday, February 02, 2005
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption align=right>NBC</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>TETERBORO, N.J. (AP) - A corporate jet hurtled off the end of an airport runway today while attempting to take off, speeding across a highway and striking two cars before slamming into a warehouse. About 15 people were injured, one critically, but nobody was killed, officials said.
The injured included at least two people in the cars, officials said.
Eleven people were on the plane; the most seriously injured was the pilot, who suffered a broken leg, said officials, who did not disclose the identities of the passengers or crew.
"I think everybody at this point is extremely lucky and fortunate," said acting Gov. Richard J. Codey.
One witness said a pilot crawled out of the wreckage and told him the crew lost control of the plane.
It was headed for Midway Airport in Chicago when the accident happened around 7:20 a.m., said Greg Martin, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington. A National Transportation Safety Board team was dispatched to the site.
Authorities initially said there were 14 people on the plane but later said there were 11. They gave no information on what company or group had chartered the jet.
One witness said the plane never made it off the ground after "sliding and skidding" down the runway.
"Usually we see them lift off, but this one just went straight and started scratching the ground. There were sparks shooting out all over the place," said Joseph Massaro, a psychologist who lives nearby.
Christopher Trucillo, chief of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said rescue crews were unsure whether the inside of the plane was on fire when they arrived, and they used a special hose nozzle to punch through the skin of the aircraft and spray fire-suppressing foam inside.
Video from television station helicopters showed wheel tracks, plainly visible in snow, that ran straight off the end of the runway, through a fence and a snow bank and then across six-lane U.S. 46.
Witness Robert Sosa told WNBC-TV he saw the plane crash into the building.
"The pilot said he dragged himself out," Sosa said. "He literally crawled out like a baby, and all the other people just walked out normal."
"He said as they tried to airborne ... they just lost control," Sosa said.
Martin said communication between the air traffic control and the aircraft was routine. The weather was clear and wind was calm, with temperatures in the low 20s.
Martin identified the aircraft as a twin-engine Canadair Challenger 600, "a type of small regional business/charter jet" that can carry 12 to 15 passengers.
A similar plane, a Canadair CL-601 Challenger, crashed in December in Colorado while trying to take off, killing a son of NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol and two others. After that crash, the NTSB warned pilots of smaller planes to run their hands along their aircraft's wings before takeoff to make sure ice hadn't formed.
The registered owner is 448 Alliance LLC of Dallas, and is listed among the inventory of aircraft operated by Darby Aviation, of Sheffield, Ala., FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. The jet is also operated by Platinum Jet of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., he said. "That's perfectly legal," Peters said.
A message seeking comment at Darby Aviation was not immediately returned, while a person at Platinum Jet said no one was available to speak.
At the warehouse, owned by clothing company Strawberry, employee Luis Ruiz said only a few workers were inside when the plane hit. One was injured, he said.
Dr. Joseph Feldman of Hackensack University Medical Center said 12 people, including the pilot and copilot, were taken there and three were admitted, one _ a person who had been in a car _ in critical condition. Most of them needed to be showered to remove jet fuel, Feldman said.
Two people, a flight attendant and a man who had been in a car, were taken to Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, said spokeswoman Katherine Kakogiannis. The flight attendant had minor injuries; she didn't know the condition of the other person.
The airport, 12 miles from midtown Manhattan, was closed after the crash. Teterboro has grown into one of the nation's busiest small airports, catering to corporate jets. It had 202,720 arrivals and departures in 2004, a 4 percent increase from 2003, officials said.
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Associated Press Updated at noon.
Posted Wednesday, February 02, 2005
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The injured included at least two people in the cars, officials said.
Eleven people were on the plane; the most seriously injured was the pilot, who suffered a broken leg, said officials, who did not disclose the identities of the passengers or crew.
"I think everybody at this point is extremely lucky and fortunate," said acting Gov. Richard J. Codey.
One witness said a pilot crawled out of the wreckage and told him the crew lost control of the plane.
It was headed for Midway Airport in Chicago when the accident happened around 7:20 a.m., said Greg Martin, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington. A National Transportation Safety Board team was dispatched to the site.
Authorities initially said there were 14 people on the plane but later said there were 11. They gave no information on what company or group had chartered the jet.
One witness said the plane never made it off the ground after "sliding and skidding" down the runway.
"Usually we see them lift off, but this one just went straight and started scratching the ground. There were sparks shooting out all over the place," said Joseph Massaro, a psychologist who lives nearby.
Christopher Trucillo, chief of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said rescue crews were unsure whether the inside of the plane was on fire when they arrived, and they used a special hose nozzle to punch through the skin of the aircraft and spray fire-suppressing foam inside.
Video from television station helicopters showed wheel tracks, plainly visible in snow, that ran straight off the end of the runway, through a fence and a snow bank and then across six-lane U.S. 46.
Witness Robert Sosa told WNBC-TV he saw the plane crash into the building.
"The pilot said he dragged himself out," Sosa said. "He literally crawled out like a baby, and all the other people just walked out normal."
"He said as they tried to airborne ... they just lost control," Sosa said.
Martin said communication between the air traffic control and the aircraft was routine. The weather was clear and wind was calm, with temperatures in the low 20s.
Martin identified the aircraft as a twin-engine Canadair Challenger 600, "a type of small regional business/charter jet" that can carry 12 to 15 passengers.
A similar plane, a Canadair CL-601 Challenger, crashed in December in Colorado while trying to take off, killing a son of NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol and two others. After that crash, the NTSB warned pilots of smaller planes to run their hands along their aircraft's wings before takeoff to make sure ice hadn't formed.
The registered owner is 448 Alliance LLC of Dallas, and is listed among the inventory of aircraft operated by Darby Aviation, of Sheffield, Ala., FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. The jet is also operated by Platinum Jet of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., he said. "That's perfectly legal," Peters said.
A message seeking comment at Darby Aviation was not immediately returned, while a person at Platinum Jet said no one was available to speak.
At the warehouse, owned by clothing company Strawberry, employee Luis Ruiz said only a few workers were inside when the plane hit. One was injured, he said.
Dr. Joseph Feldman of Hackensack University Medical Center said 12 people, including the pilot and copilot, were taken there and three were admitted, one _ a person who had been in a car _ in critical condition. Most of them needed to be showered to remove jet fuel, Feldman said.
Two people, a flight attendant and a man who had been in a car, were taken to Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, said spokeswoman Katherine Kakogiannis. The flight attendant had minor injuries; she didn't know the condition of the other person.
The airport, 12 miles from midtown Manhattan, was closed after the crash. Teterboro has grown into one of the nation's busiest small airports, catering to corporate jets. It had 202,720 arrivals and departures in 2004, a 4 percent increase from 2003, officials said.
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