BAYONNE — Avenue E flooded with residents looking on as a debris of a small aircraft littered the residential neighborhood.
At 10:01 a.m. the pilot of the plane crashed near 41st Street, crushing multiple cars and shocking a small neighborhood.
The pilot was the only person on board. He is about 60 years old and was brought to Jersey City Medical Center’s trauma unit for treatment, hospital spokesman Mark Rabson said.
The pilot was extricated from the mangled plane by the Bayonne Fire Department. City Public Safety Director Robert Kubert said he was “alert and talking.”
Police at the scene said the pilot appeared to have encounter difficulties near the Statue of Liberty before the crash.
“Arriving fire companies found a small plane had crashed, turned upside down, and the pilot was trapped inside,” Chief Keith Weaver said. “Our firefighters did an outstanding job.”
Residents in the neighborhood described a chaotic scene following the crash.
Lillian Diaz lives directly across the street from where the plane crashed. She initially thought the mangled plane was a boat that had dislodged from the back of a truck.
“There was running all over the place, there were people just running back and fourth,” Diaz said from her front porch. “I’m still shaking.”
At the house on the corner on 42nd Street, Luis Serveirno said he had just gotten in from work when his wife told him about the crash. Serveirno, who is also a pilot, said he didn’t see any flames and it looked like the pilot must have been trying to make an emergency landing.
“It wasn’t fuel, the engine might have died” Serverino said. “It looks like he was trying to get to an empty field on the other side of the highway.
The National Transportation Safety Board will be conducting the investigation and officials are on their way to the scene. Several residents in the neighborhood are without power.
Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
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