U.S.

NJ Crash Cause May Remain A Mystery

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 9, 2000 / 12:39 PM EDT / CBS

Investigators were assembling pieces of each plane and talking to eyewitnesses, but they said they might never know what caused a midair collision that killed 11 people on Wednesday.

A team of federal aviation experts and representatives from the airplane manufacturers were awaiting radar data and images, said George Black, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, on Thursday.

Neither plane carried machines to record flight data or pilot conversations, Black said. Both pilots were apparently flying visually, not by instruments, Black said.

Without that flight data, investigators might not be able to pinpoint the cause or determine who was flying each plane at the time of impact, he said.

"We'll never know exactly what the pilots were doing at the time of the accident," Black said.

The two planes collided over an upscale subdivision about 10 miles south of Trenton, N.J., sending wreckage hurtling onto a home and setting it ablaze, CBS News Correspondent Terisa Estacio reports.

A couple inside the house escaped unharmed and no injuries were reported on the ground.

"We didn't know what happened," homeowner Cathy Trzaskawka said. "We just heard a loud noise and then the whole front of the house looked like flames. We then ran out the back door and saw our neighbors doing the same thing."

Five bodies and the fuselage of one plane landed in the garage of that house, and another victim fell through the roof of a garage two blocks away, police said. Three more bodies fell from the sky into nearby athletic fields, some still in their airplane seats. The bodies of a flight instructor and student pilot from the second plane fell into a soybean field, officials said.

For now the task for investigators is to reassemble what is left from the two twin-engine planes one piece at a time. About half the wreckage had been recovered by midday Thursday, Black said. But many small pieces were hidden in the nearby soybean field and might never be found.

Each chunk of wreckage will remain where it fell until NTSB team members log the exact location. That will produce a map of the debris field, Black said.

Experts will also examine the wreckage for marks left by the impact.

"In other words, collision evidence and evidence of how the airplanes were aligned when they impacted each other," Black said.

Radar images might show the moment when the planes neared each other and possibly the impact itself, he said. Both aircraft did have transponders that sent signals indicating their altitude, Black said.

"We will never know exactly the facts that led up to the accident because we don't have these recorders that they have on airliners," Black said.

Seven victims were civilian employees of the U.S. Navy. Another was a police officer who also worked as a flight instructor.

The Naval employees and two crew members were on a chartered Piper Navajo from the Lakehurst Naval Air Engieering Station. They were en route to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md.

Shortly after the Piper Navajo left Lakehurst, the pilot canceled a flight plan that called for him to use instruments, Black said. The plane left Trenton-Mercer Airport at 7:48 a.m. The accident occurred six minutes later.

The second plane, a Piper Seminole from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, carried a flight instructor and a student, officials said.

Regional air traffic controllers were under no obligation to track either plane, Black said. Pilots using "visual rules" are required to observe the skies themselves for other aircraft.

So far investigators have found no evidence of any distress calls. The pilot of the Piper Navajo did not check in with any control towers, he added.

The Navy identified its seven employees as: Angelo George, 39, of Toms River, a program manager; Cynthia Kovacs, 39, of Robbinsville, a mechanical engineer; Robert Polo, 39, of Barnegat, a logistics management specialist; Michael Simodejka, 52, of Toms River, a logistics management specialist; John Vail Jr., 36, of Howell, a program manager; John Zukow, 56, of Toms River, an engineering technician; and David Dahlen, 57, of Warminster, Pa.

Crew members were identified as Daniel Groff, 38, of Forked River and Joseph Mari, 37, of Toms River. Both were employed by Patuxent Airways of California, Md.

The flight instructor in the Piper Seminole was identified as Craig Robinson, 28, of Hamilton Township, Mercer County, who also was a nine-year veteran of the Washington Township Police Department in Mercer County. He worked as a flight instructor for Hortman Aviation.

New Jersey State Police identified the student as Jason Wismer, 20, of Bensalem, Pa. He was a licensed pilot working toward his commercial license.