A small plane has crash landed in a mall parking lot in New Jersey, authorities said.
The plane went down in the Rockaway Town Mall parking lot between JC Penny's and Toys-R-Us at about 12 p.m.
The front end of the small passenger plane appeared to be damaged, said JC Penney employee Nadia Acevedo from the scene. But the pilot was up and walking after the plane went down and no one was injured on the ground, authorities said. The pilot and his female passenger were taken to a nearby hospital.
The Picatinny Arsenal Hazmat and Foam Unit were called to the scene. The plane -- a single-engine Cessna 172RG -- was en route to Essex County Airport when it went down.
The fixed-wing plane, built in 1979, is registered to Genesus One Inc., of Paramus, Bergen County, according to federal aviation records.
The latest crash is the third in a string of bizarre incidents involving small plane crashes in the tri-state area in recent weeks.
Last Friday, a small plane crashed and burst into flames near Teterboro Airport. The plane struck a tree after aborting its landing. Miraculously, the pilot and his passenger will able to crawl out of the flaming wreckage. Both suffered severe burns, but are expected to be OK.
On Aug. 8, a single-engine plane collided with a Liberty Tours helicopter over the Hudson River. Three people in the plane, including a teenager, and five Italian tourists and a pilot in the chopper were killed. Two employees at Teterboro Airport were suspended while federal authorities investigated the crash.
