New Jersey

Hear the Frantic 911 Calls Residents Made Immediately After NJ Plane Crash

A woman who lives right behind where the plane went down is heard desperately telling the operator to send help quickly as the flames spread

What to Know

  • NJ police released he 911 calls residents made in the aftermath of the plane crash that left the pilot dead
  • The recordings showing the level of panic those in the area had immediately after the aircraft went into a nearby house.
  • A woman who lives right behind where the plane went down is heard desperately telling the operator to send help quickly as the flames spread

New Jersey police on Friday released the 911 calls residents made in the aftermath of the plane crash that left the pilot dead, with the recordings showing the level of panic those in the area had immediately after the aircraft went into a nearby house.

A woman who lives right behind where the plane went down is heard desperately telling the operator to send help quickly, as the flames were spreading.

“Colonia, Water Street. Explosion, fire, it’s behind my house!” the woman frantically tells the dispatcher, who assures her that fire crews were on the way. “I know…but you got to send somebody…Runnymeade pipeline is by my place.”

After the frightened woman was asked if her house was on fire, she said no but said there were pine trees, which burn quickly and would help the fire spread.

“I think that there are three houses that are on fire,” the woman said. "I heard the big boom. Oh my God. Something freaking hit it."

The woman said that although she couldn't see the wreck, she heard the explosion and could see the house near her "engulfed" in flames.

Another woman who lives in one of the houses impacted by the crash and the flames called 911 moments after escaping from her home that caught fire.

“There’s flames, it sounds like a truck crashed. Something blew up over there,” the woman is heard saying.

The slew of calls made to the emergency operators also shows how many people either saw or heard the Tuesday crash around noon.

The Cessna 414 crashed into a home on Berkley Avenue in Woodbridge Township at 11 a.m. Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Association said. Pilot Michael Schloss, a 74-year-old cardiologist from NYC, was killed in the crash, but thankfully no one else was injured.

Schloss was flying from his home in Virginia up to the airport in Linden to attend a lecture in the city.

The plane was seen on a doorbell camera falling from the sky, just moments before the crash.

Investigators say Schloss didn't radio a distress signal before the crash in the Colonia section of Woodbridge Township. The house the plane landed into on Berkley Avenue went up in flames that completely destroyed the building, and two other homes sustained damage in the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board was still investigating the cause of the crash. Crews have been removing chunks of the plane for the past three days.

The FAA and NTSB are still investigating. A preliminary report from the NTSB is expected in about two weeks.

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