TETERBORO, N.J. – A harrowing plane crash at Teterboro Airport ended in a miracle Wednesday when no one was killed – including two factory workers who watched in horror as the out-of-control corporate jet sheared off the top of their Toyota.
“Look out! Look out! A plane is coming!” James Dinnal, 66, screamed at co-worker Rohan Foster, 32, as the 10-ton aircraft suddenly shot off the runway and hurtled toward them on Route 46 in New Jersey.
A moment later, the twin-engine Challenger CL-600 struck their green sedan, skidded across the rest of the six-lane highway and crashed into a warehouse in flames.
The two pilots, a flight attendant and eight passengers – including five from the Manhattan investment firm Kelso & Co., which chartered the jet for a flight to Chicago – all survived the accident.
So did several bystanders and the occupants of two cars hit by the plane, although Dinnal, a semiretired metal polisher, was in critical condition at Hackensack University Medical Center.
“This is a miracle,” Foster’s grateful wife, Margaret, said outside Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, where her husband was being treated for a broken nose, cut head and sore neck.
The National Transportation Safety Board is probing the cause of the crash, and a team of investigators interviewed the pilot, who had minor injuries, and the co-pilot, who broke a leg. A witness quoted the pilot as saying, “I just didn’t get enough lift,” as he stumbled out of the wreck in a daze.
Aviation experts said ice buildup on a plane wing is one of the scenarios that could explain why the jet failed to liftoff, and it’s unknown whether the plane was deiced.
The company that fueled the plane before takeoff did not deice the aircraft.
“They fueled it this morning, catered it and that was it,” said Bruce Hicks, a spokesman for Million Air, an aircraft service company at Teterboro. “I don’t know that it needed deicing.”
NTSB member Debbie Hersman said the plane’s cockpit voice recorder was found and may shed light on the accident.
The jet started down the 6,000-foot-long runway about 7:30 a.m. EST but never took flight.
“This one just went straight and started scratching the ground,” said Joseph Massaro, who lives nearby. “There were sparks shooting out all over the place.”
The jet punched through the airport wall, and car pool buddies Dinnal and Foster, on their way to work at Acrison Inc.’s plant in Moonachie, N.J., found themselves directly in its path.
“It was right down on them already when they got to duck,” said Margaret Foster, 35. “He didn’t get a chance to be afraid.”
Neither did Pat Muzzillo, 58, who had just parked her car in the lot behind the Strawberry clothing chain warehouse when she heard a huge boom.
“Not even a second later, I saw the plane sticking out the shipping department. I panicked. I was scared to death.
“It was maybe 20 feet away from me and it immediately burst into flames … It was like someone striking a match,” she said. “I saw people running out of the plane. I just yelled, “My God! My God!’ and I ran and ran and ran.”
Claudio Gomez, 32, who works in a warehouse next to the Strawberry building, was unloading light bulbs when the plane crashed. He rushed to the emergency exit.
Two men jumped out, followed by a woman who pleaded for help. Jet fuel had spilled everywhere, and the plane was in danger of exploding.
“When I saw the airplane on fire and I saw the gasoline all around me, I said, “I have to get out of here,’ Gomez said. “But when the girl called me and said, “Please help me,’ I had to go back.”
The nose of the plane slammed through the warehouse’s concrete wall, but the crew managed to escape.
“The pilot stumbled out through the flames and said, “I have to take care of my passengers and crew,”‘ the worker said. “The pilot was very disoriented. He kept asking for passengers. He said he did the best he could. He said he didn’t get enough lift.”
The jet is owned by Dallas firm DDH Aviation but is leased to Platinum Jet Management of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which did not return phone calls.
Twenty people, including five firefighters, were taken to hospitals, but only five were admitted overnight.
“At this point, we’re extremely lucky there were no fatalities,” said acting New Jersey Gov. Richard Codey.
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(c) 2005, New York Daily News.
Visit the Daily News online at http://www.nydailynews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): PLANECRASH
AP-NY-02-02-05 2234EST
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