15 Injured Skydiving Plane Crash at Cross Keys Airport in Williamstown, New Jersey
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – All 15 people who were on a skydiving aircraft were being treated for injuries after the small plane crashed at Cross Keys Airport in Williamstown, US State of New Jersey, on Wednesday, according to a hospital spokesperson.
Wendy Marano, of Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J., said three were transported to Cooper's trauma center, eight were treated in Cooper's emergency department with less serious injuries, and four who had minor injuries were brought to a waiting room to be reunited with their families, CBS News reported.
Just before 5:30 p.m., crews were dispatched for a downed aircraft at the airport on North Tuckahoe Road, said Andrew Halter, who is with the Gloucester County Office of Emergency Management. He said emergency responders declared a mass casualty incident after they arrived.
Several of the people injured were covered in jet fuel after the crash, Halter said.
Halter pointed out that emergency crews did a mass casualty training exercise at Cross Keys Airport recently, and he believes that played a role in the response.
"It's amazing at this point that there are no fatalities reported," Halter said. "There are some injuries reported to be severe or critical. Again, people received tremendous medical treatment on scene, a joint effort between police officers, firefighters and EMS crews who first arrived at the scene."
Halter said the people on board the aircraft were set to go skydiving, but the pilot reported engine trouble after taking off.
The pilot then tried circling back around and attempted to land but was unsuccessful. Emergency crews on the scene could be seen around a wooded area where the plane had crashed. Officials declined to comment on how high the plane got before crashing.
According to FlightAware, the small plane, a Cessna 208B, took off from Cross Keys Airport at 5:19 p.m. and was only in the air for four minutes.
The crash is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Monroe Township Police Department and the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office.
The plane is still at the scene of the crash, and crews will be investigating at the scene through the night, according to Halter.
The small plane was involved in an incident in July 2023 at an airport in Suffolk, Virginia.
In the NTSB's final report from the 2023 incident, the federal agency said the pilot was returning from her fifth skydive of the day when the aircraft went off the runway during the landing.
As the plane landed in Virginia, "the flare seemed insufficient," and the nose landing gear collapsed. The plane then went off the runway and came to rest in the grass. The aircraft sustained substantial damage to the engine mounts during the incident, according to the NTSB. The federal agency said the pilot did not report any mechanical malfunctions or failures with the plane that would have "precluded normal operation."
The NTSB determined that the "pilot's inadequate landing flare" resulted in the crash in 2023.
