Story ID: 1122011alerts
Turboprop Single Crashes on New Jersey Highway
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: 
Word Count: 189
A Daher-Socata TBM700 crashed this morning on a New Jersey highway soon after takeoff from Teterboro Airport (TEB), killing all five on board and closing the roadway for hours.

According to the FAA, the turboprop single was headed to Atlanta’s Dekalb-Peachtree Airport on an IFR flight plan when it disappeared from radar after a garbled radio transmission.

Witnesses at the scene say the aircraft made a spiral dive, shed a wing and crashed into the wooded median of I-287 in Morris County, approximately 30 miles southwest of TEB. The airplane exploded on impact, leaving a debris field at least two miles wide, according to the New Jersey State Police.

The TBM, N731CA, was registered to Cool Stream in New York City. It belonged to Jeffrey Buckalew, “an experienced pilot,” according to a statement from New York-based investment bank Greenhill & Co., where he was managing director.

Buckalew, his wife and two children and Rakesh Chawla, another managing director, are believed to have been aboard at the time of the accident, according to the statement.