2 dead in Burlington County, New Jersey small plane crash
SPRINGFIELD TWP., N.J. (WPVI) -- Two people are confirmed dead after a small plane crash in Burlington County, New Jersey.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the twin-engine Hawker Beechcraft 58 Baron plane went down on Wednesday morning in Springfield Township.
The two victims were males, state police said. Their identities will not be released until family members are notified.
An NTSB investigator flew in from Florida Wednesday afternoon, to begin investigating the cause of the crash, a difficult task because of the location.
The plane had taken off a short time earlier from South Jersey Regional Airport in Lumberton, which is about 10 miles southwest of the crash scene, and had a destination of Hyannis, Massachusetts.
Video from Chopper 6 showed the wreckage of the plane in a wooded area.
It appears the plane cut a large swath through a field and skidded across the roadway before coming to rest in the woods.
Garret Rodriguez-Maribona was driving along that road when he came across the scene.
"I was probably 50 to 70 yards away from it when I saw the huge cloud of smoke," said Rodriguez-Maribona. "I saw what looked like the shadow of the plane through the smoke when it crashed."
He called police, got out of his car to look for possible survivors, then took video of the scene.
Rodriguez-Maribona said, at first, he wasn't sure what had happened. Then he realized he was in the middle of a plane crash site.
"There was paper everywhere. I saw a shoe, a lot of metal, wires," he said. "Off to the left side of the road there was a huge hunk of metal."
Action News has learned the plane was based at the airport in Lumberton from where it took off, it was privately owned, and people at the airport were familiar with the pilot.
There was no immediate word on a cause of the crash.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to be on the scene by Wednesday evening, police said.
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