TETERBORO, N.J. - A corporate jet skidded off the runway while taking off from Teterboro Airport on Wednesday, hurtling across a highway during the morning rush hour before slamming into a warehouse. At least 14 people were injured, one critically.
One witness said a pilot crawled out of the wreckage and told him the crew lost control of the plane.
State police said two people were missing and 11 were injured in the crash; two hospitals later reported treating 14 people. The plane appeared to have struck at least one car on the highway.
A traffic helicopter pilot for New York radio station WCBS said the plane went off the runway and broke through a fence. It appeared to strike at least one car.
The jet was headed for Midway Airport in Chicago, said Greg Martin, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, and early reports indicate that 12 passengers were on board.
'Sliding and skidding'
One witness to the crash said the plane never made it off the ground after “sliding and skidding” down the runway.
“Usually we see them lift off, but this one just went straight and started scratching the ground. There were sparks shooting out all over the place,” said Joseph Massaro, a psychologist who lives nearby.
“It was so scary. Everything was flying apart. There was a big hole in the building and I heard screaming and yelling,” Massaro said.
Witness Robert Sosa told WNBC-TV he saw the plane crash into the building.
“Two guys came off with their hand cuts,” Sosa said. “The pilot said he dragged himself out. He literally crawled out like a baby, and all the other people just walked out normal.”
“He said as they tried to airborne before five minutes past (7 a.m.), they just lost control and they couldn’t airborne the plane. They went straight through, 100 miles per hour,” Sosa said.
Martin said communication between the air traffic control and the aircraft was routine, and that the aircraft had been cleared for takeoff.
Martin described the aircraft as a twin-engine Canadair Challenger 600, “a type of small regional business/charter jet,” which can carry 12 to 15 passengers.
A similar plane, a Canadair CL-601 Challenger, crashed in December while trying to take off from Montrose, Colo., killing a son of NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol and two others. After that crash, the National Transportation Safety Board warned pilots of smaller planes to run their hands along their aircraft’s wings before takeoff to make sure tiny amounts of ice haven’t formed that could increase the risk of an accident.
The manager of the warehouse, owned by clothing company Strawberry, Tommy Ficarra, said about 200 people usually work there but only a handful were inside when the plane hit because of the early hour.
Dr. Joseph Feldman of Hackensack University Medical Center said 12 people were taken there and three were admitted, one in critical condition.
Two people, a flight attendant and a man who had been in a car, were taken to Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, said hospital spokeswoman Katherine Kakogiannis. The flight attendant had minor injuries and she didn’t know the condition of the other person.
Tracks show path through snow
According to “very early, preliminary information,” the plane hit some cars as it crossed the highway, Martin said.
Television reports showed smoke billowing from the building and skid marks leading to the crash site. The tire tracks, plainly visible in snow, ran straight off the end of the runway, through a fence and a snowbank and then across the highway.
The FAA Web site says plane is registered to a company called 448 Alliance LLC, and gives an address in Dallas. Directory assistance has no company with that name, but does show a DDH Aviation at the same address. No one answered the phone there.
Route 46 closed in both directions and broadcast reports said the airport, in the northern New Jersey suburbs 12 miles from midtown Manhattan, was closed.
Once considered a destination for weekend recreational fliers, Teterboro has grown into one of the nation’s busiest small airports, catering to corporate jets looking to avoid the hassles of larger airports.
Nearly a year ago, on Feb. 26, a Gulfstream 3 registered to 448 Alliance rolled off the runway into the mud at Atlanta’s Peachtree-DeKalb Airport after a snowstorm. No one was injured.
If I remember correctly, Teterboro is a small airport and caters mostly to private airplanes. When I came from Boston, the plane was 'de-iced' by a special liquid, and the whole runway was cleared of snow and ice. I wonder if these regular precautions were not taken thoroughly that day.
M.
"Every positive integer is one of Ramanujan's personal friends."—J. E. Littlewood.
Hey, haven't been around for awhile, school is busy and all. This incident must have been scary, good thing no one died in the incident.
But seeing another topic in the Breaking News section, perhaps you should have titled the thread: "White man recklessly endangers the life of black motorist with his plane." Just being humorous.
I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
- Bill Cosby
The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.
- Gordon Parks
02-02-2005 04:46 PM
Just being humorous. 
