A skydiving plane carrying 15 people crashed into a wooded area near a New Jersey airport, leaving several passengers critically injured.
A Cessna 208B plane was in the air for minutes after taking off at Cross Keys Airport in Williamstown before reports of a downed aircraft emerged just before 5.30 p.m. on Wednesday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
All 15 people on board were taken to the Cooper University Hospital in Camden to be treated for injuries in what the Gloucester County Emergency Management called a “mass casualty incident” in a Facebook post Wednesday.
Three people with critical injuries were taken to the hospital by a helicopter, the agency said. Trauma surgeons were at the scene triaging the victims, a Cooper spokesperson told the New York Times.
Footage captured by Philadelphia-based 6abc Action News showed bodies being stretchered away by emergency personnel in the aftermath of the crash.
Twelve others on board were being treated with “less severe” or minor injuries, they added. Several of those injured were reportedly covered in jet fuel.
“It’s amazing at this point that there are no fatalities reported,” Andrew Halter of Gloucester County OEM said.
“There are some injuries reported to be severe or critical,” he continued. “Again, people received tremendous medical treatment on scene, a joint effort between police officers, firefighters and EMS crews who first arrived at the scene.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy tweeted that he had been briefed on the crash and confirmed that there had been “no fatalities at this time.”
The Cessna, which was leased to Skydive Cross Keys, had reported engine trouble before the crash, Halter said. The pilot tried circling back around and attempted to land at Cross Keys Airport but was unsuccessful.
Federal and local authorities are investigating the cause of the crash.
The incident comes just days after a small twin-engine plane crashed in Ohio, killing six people.
On Sunday morning, shortly after that plane took off from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, it crashed in a heavily wooded area.
The plane was carrying two experienced crew members and four passengers when it crashed and caught on fire, local officials said.
Howland Fire Chief Ray Pace said the “extremely tragic situation” could have been worse, as the plane crashed near two or three houses.
