February 2, 2005
News My Way
TETERBORO, N.J. (AP) - 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 building. At least 11 people were injured and two were missing.
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.
State police said two people were missing and 11 were injured in the crash. It was not immediately clear whether all those people were on the plane.
It was headed for Midway Airport in Chicago, said Greg Martin, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington, D.C., and early reports indicate that 12 passengers were on board.
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.
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.
The building that was struck has been described as a clothing warehouse, and there were no injuries there, Martin said.
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.
State Police Trooper Stephen Jones said emergency management crews at the warehouse were conducting "a rescue operation."
"You act on that assumption until you know otherwise," he said.
A spokeswoman at Hackensack University Medical Center confirmed some people from the crash had been brought there but would provide no details.
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.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050202/D880DSRG2.html