On February 15, 2010, at approximately 3:45 pm, a small plane crashed at the Monmouth Executive Airport (formerly Allaire Airport) in New Jersey killing all five people aboard, including three members of a family visiting from Poland, among them a teenager and a young child. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and local authorities is continuing.
The plane is registered to Jack Air LLC and appears to correspond to an aircraft bearing FAA registration N12NA which was recently advertised for sale with a contact person named Jack Mazurek. Mr. Mazurek was also onboard the plane.
The plane was apparently based at the Monmouth airport and was returning towards the runway when the crash occurred. Reports indicate that the plane at taken off from Monmouth minutes before the crash and was supposed to be heading on a sight-seeing trip to New York.
The plane was reported, by eye-witnesses, to have been approaching the airport with its landing gear up and at a high rate of speed. The plane was then observed to be pulled up to climb and parts of the plane, including the right wing, were observed to either fall off the plane or structurally fail in flight.
| Investigators sift through plane wreckage at Monmouth airfield as snow falls heavier on the scene |
The 337 was first built by Cessna in 1964 and has a relatively unique design with one propeller engine in the nose of the plane, and another propeller engine at the rear of the plane in the same line. The design is commonly referred to as a “push, pull” design and was intended to make the plane more controllable in the event that one engine fails (compared to having one of the two engines on either of the wings fail which causes the airplane to turn and can be harder to control). The 337 was used by the military. Cessna stopped making the 337 in 1980.
A Cessna 337 (shown without Riley conversion)
The accident plane appears to have been a 1976 model, but subsequently underwent a “Riley Rocket” conversion. The “Riley Rocket” conversion upgrades the plane’s engines, avionics and airframe, among other things, and increases the speed and performance of the 337.
The NTSB has preliminarily determined that the flight maneuver was consistent with a return to the field for a low altitude, high speed, “fly-by” over the field. If the pilot pulled the aircraft up at a high airspeed, it may have placed forces on the plane’s fuselage that were strong enough to break off parts of the plane, such as its flight control surfaces (the parts of the plane that control its flight) thereby rendering it uncontrollable. There was, apparently, a portable GPS system on board the plane which way help determine the aircraft’s speed which could assist in determining the precise cause of the crash and who may be responsible. If the aircraft was materially altered by Riley in a way that compromised its structural integrity, there may be culpability on their part.
It was reported that family members of the passengers were still at the airport when the crash occurred. Our thoughts are with the families of those that perished.
I am ATP, A&P IA rated. I have just spent 2 years repairing issues with the Riley converted P337. Both Riley and at least 1 other after market product have compromised the 337 strucure. Riley even installed non strucural screws on the top stress panels. I would check the screw part numbers. check rileys installation of the outboard rivet sets, check to see the wing stress panels were installed under the nacell fairings. The feds are not capable, they will blame it on pilot error. If you look you will see mechanical error.