Colonia Plane Crash in New Jersey That Killed Pilot and Destroyed 3 Homes

A small plane crashed through the roof of a home Tuesday, killing the pilot and causing an explosion that set two houses ablaze in a New Jersey suburb of New York City. National Transportation Safety Board investigators will return today to the scene of a deadly small plane crash in New Jersey to determine what went wrong.

It happened around 11 a.m. Tuesday on Berkley Avenue near Princeton Avenue in Colonia. Authorities say no one was inside the house that was struck, but flames quickly spread to a nearby home where a woman was inside. She escaped without injury, but the house was damaged.

Chilling video shows plane plummeting into a New Jersey house as pilot is named as renowned cardiologist, 74, who survived a crash in the same aircraft ten years ago. Several houses caught fire after the Cessna 414 came down in Berkley Avenue in Colonia, New Jersey at 11am. Images from the scene show fire crews battling flames on the residential street lined with trees on Tuesday. Officials said there were no reports of injuries on the ground and the plane was occupied by only the pilot . Dr. Michael Schloss, 74, an experienced pilot, has been named as the man inside the plane when it crashed

No one was in the home that the Cessna 414 crashed into, but flames spread to another house, where a woman escaped injury, Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac said.

Black smoke and intense flames shot into the air from the house on Berkley Avenue. It was destroyed, along with two other homes next door. “It was like a huge explosion. The whole house shook,” neighbor Jane Pagano told CBS2. “Everybody’s running out of their houses to see what it was.”

The flight left Leesburg, Virginia, with only the pilot aboard, before 10 a.m., authorities said. The pilot was cleared to land at the Linden Airport, roughly 4 miles from the crash, but he suddenly lost contact with air traffic control, according to Gerhardt.

Crews will resume their work Wednesday morning removing the plane from the basement of this home, an operation that could take three days.