Plane plunge
Crashes on N.J. street, hits cars & power lines
A PILOT CRASHED a small plane in Bayonne, N.J., on Sunday — narrowly escaping death as he hit cars and knocked down power lines in his path.
The single-engine plane, registered to a New York flight school, crashed around 10 a.m., in a residential area at Avenue E between 41st and 42nd Sts.
One witness said the plane took down power lines and crashed into a car that appeared to have someone in it.
“I heard a really loud noise and it freaked me out,” Kayla Guzman, 21, told the Daily News.
“All you could hear is people yelling, ‘It’s a plane! It’s a plane!’ ”
The plane struck four cars and knocked out power for a dozen residents before it landed upside-down, Bayonne police said.
Police identified the pilot as George Pettway, 56, of Wheatley Heights, L.I. He was taken to the Jersey City Medical Center and later listed in stable condition.
Pettway said his plane experienced a “mechanical failure” as he flew over the Hudson River near the Statue of Liberty, Bayonne Police Lt. James Donovan said. The crash did not appear suspicious, Donovan said.
Police said no one else was in the plane, nor was anyone else injured. Residents were warned by authorities to avoid the area due to live power wires in the street.
The PA-28 plane is registered to a Whitestone, Queens, address tied to Airborn Flight Services, a flight school in Farmingdale, L.I., according to Federal Aviation Administration records. The plane is listed on the school’s website as part of its fleet.
A man who answered the Farmingdale school’s number confirmed that the school is involved in the crash but declined to give details or identify himself.
“Let me do my job, OK?” he said before hanging up.