Witnesses Say Plane Broke Up Inflight

ANN REALTIME REPORTING 05.31.06 1900EDT: Investigators with the NTSB are rushing to the scene of the apparent inflight breakup of a Piper PA28 over Stafford Township, NJ Wednesday morning. Four people onboard the single-engine aircraft were killed.

The largest part of the wreckage fell into a wooded area near several homes, with the plane's fuselage landing near a beach-access road off the Garden State Parkway, police Captain Charles Schweigart told the Associated Press.

Witness Carla Gallo said she heard a loud whining sound, followed by an explosion.

"You just saw all these yellow and white pieces falling," Gallo said. "We didn't see the big part of the plane. We just saw the little pieces."

However, another witness to the accident told New York's WABC-TV the plane appeared largely intact just before it impacted the ground.

"They said it broke up a little bit before it got here," said Paul Fagen. "It looked pretty much intact like looking at the bottom of the airplane taking a nose dive into the woods. That's what I saw."

FAA spokesman Jim Peters reports the aircraft was registered to Aviron Aviation LLC in North Plainfield, NJ. The FAA registry database shows one aircraft listed to that company -- a 1979 PA-28-236 (file photo of type, right), tail number N48ED.

WABC reports the aircraft departed Somerset County Airport Wednesday morning.

The identities of the victims have not been released.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.faa.gov