From The APP:
NEPTUNE — A small four-seater plane crashed Saturday evening into the shallow waters of the Shark River, and rescue crews were at the scene searching for bodies and debris, authorities said.
The plane smashed into small pieces, and divers still were looking for fragments of the plane and anyone on board, authorities said.
"The dive team that's been going down has reported that there is no full intact plane," said Petty Officer First Class Nyx Cangemi, a Coast Guard spokesman.
"The State Police Marine Division is gathering up pieces of the plane," he said. "We're approaching this strictly as a search-and-rescue mission."
The Federal Aviation Administration's regional office had no information regarding the type of aircraft, how many people were aboard the plane, or where it took off or was headed.
"I don't have confirmation on people on board or fatalities," said Arlene Salac, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. As of now, they have no idea what kind of plane it was, the type/make or call sign, authorities said. The Coast Guard currently is busy sifting through many little pieces, they added.
"We don't have a tail number," she said, adding "The Coast Guard has not recovered a registration number."
At this time, "We can confirm a small aircraft crashed into the Shark River," Salac said.
On the scene after the crash were a Navy ship, a rescue boat crew from the Coast Guard's Manasquan Inlet station, New Jersey State Police and other agencies. A staging area has been set up in the municipal marina in the Shark River Hills section of Neptune.
The plane crashed near the No. 3 buoy near Shark River Island, in about three feet of water.
The Coast Guard received the call at 6:51 pm, said a spokesman, Petty Officer First Class Nyx Cangemi.
Eyewitnesses said the plane sounded as if it may have had something wrong with it before it took a nosedive into the river.
"It was loud; it sounded like a car without a muffler," said David Mertz of Neptune, who watched the plane crash into the water moments later.
"It just took a nosedive," added Kyle Koterba, also of Neptune.
Water-rescue crews immediately responded to the scene. Shortly before 8 p.m. they found a big piece of the aircraft, its nose buried in the mud in about four to five feet of water, its tail sticking straight up just below the water line.
Greg Cross, 70, of Shark River Hills lives a block from the river where it happened.
"At 6:30 p.m., I was walking my dog on Riverside Drive. I heard a tremendous roar over top of me. Looked up and saw a single white small plane, possibly single-engine, flying very low.
"Once he got over my head, he dipped and went headfirst into the water — not a sound, not an explosion, not a crash — hardly a ripple. It was almost like a Olympic diver making a perfect dive. The plane went in the water head first.
"I said to myself, "Did I see what I thought I saw?' It was very unsettling."
Cross said he then stopped a passerby in a car with a cell phone, and asked him to call the police.
The crash happened at 6:53 p.m., about 250 yards east of the Shark River Municipal Marina, and the plane is buried in four to six feet of water, in the mud, said Sgt. Julian Castellanos of the State Police. There is a 75-foot-radius debris field around the wreckage area.
Divers and rescue crews will remain on the scene through the night, he said.
