| 2 die as small jet crashes |
Two people died yesterday when their plane, a former military jet trainer, crashed in a Cumberland County forest shortly after taking off from Millville Municipal Airport in the US. It was the second fatal crash of a small plane in South Jersey in 36 hours.
The pilot, William Crean, 65, of Sewell, and a 57-year-old male passenger from Gloucester County were the only people aboard the two-seat craft, police said.
The plane went down shortly after 08:00 in a densely wooded wildlife management area one mile from Buckshutem Road, police said.
The site is a half-mile northwest of the airport runway, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker said.
Police used a Fire Department bulldozer to clear a path so they could reach the site on all-terrain vehicles, state police spokesman Stephen Jones said.
Wreckage from the L-29 Delfin plane, a former Czech training craft, was scattered across 100 feet, Jones said. The plane hit a number of trees on its "fairly steep descent" to the forest floor, he said.
There was no fire, but investigators waited until 13:30 to remove the bodies to be sure there was no risk that the charged ejection seat would ignite.
FAA officials are also investigating the Friday-night crash of a homebuilt plane that killed two people in Cape May County.
Atlantic City Police Officer Dennis McGurk Jr., 37, and his wife, Oksana McGurk, 34, of Mays Landing, died when the single-engine plane went down in the parking lot of the Belleplain Fire Department in Dennis Township shortly before 20:00, state police said.
The investigation is led by the National Transportation Safety Board, Baker said. FAA records show that Dennis McGurk registered the F-1 Rocket in September. The FAA classified both planes as "experimental," Baker said.
The Czech training craft received a U.S. airworthiness certificate in 1994, she said.
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