Pilot found dead after Wantage plane crash

WANTAGE — A New York Wing search team found the wreckage of a Cessna 210 aircraft with the deceased pilot aboard this morning near the New York-New Jersey border in New Jersey’s Wantage Township recently.
A South Eastern Group ground team out of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., tracked an emergency locator transmitter signal to a field and then to the bordering woods where the plane had crashed, said Maj. Bill Martin, CAP incident commander. The plane was found inverted, with the wings torn off.
A combined Mid Eastern/South Eastern Group team had initially targeted the field the night before, setting the stage for finding the crash site, Martin said.
“The pilot appeared to be the lone occupant and was deceased,” Martin said. “All appearances are that the aircraft was trying to land in the field and hit the tree line.”
CAP notified New Jersey State Police, who secured the crash site to await Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board representatives.
CAP air and ground teams had been searching for the source of the ELT since Tuesday, May 17, after being alerted by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida.
No missing or overdue aircraft had been reported, Martin said. Search aircraft from the New York Wing launched from Poughkeepsie and initially localized the signal in the vicinity of Sussex Airport in New Jersey. A check of the airport revealed no signal was being received on the ground there.
With darkness hampering the search efforts, the search resumed Wednesday, when aircraft and ground teams focused on Unionville Road in Wantage Township. With no sign of a crash being seen from the air, ground teams continued to search the area using electronic direction-finding equipment late into the night before suspending the effort because of to darkness.
CAP ground search teams resumed their search this morning and discovered the wreckage about 10:42 a.m.
The New York Wing’s South Eastern and Catskill Mountain groups provided air support. The wing’s South Eastern Group, Catskill Mountain and Mid-Eastern groups and the New Jersey Wing provided ground team searchers.