By Bill Gannon, Mathew Futterman,
Ted Sherman and Robin Gaby Fisher
STAFF WRITERS

A small twin-engine plane approaching Teterboro Airport crashed and burned between two homes in a Hasbrouck Heights neighborhood yesterday, killing all four people aboard.

The plane, a six-seat Beechcraft Baron, fell out of the sky into the middle-class neighborhood of single-family homes on tree-lined streets, then burst into flames. It demolished a garage and charred a cluster of pines in a back yard at 17 Washington Place before careening into the back of a home in an adjoining yard. The family who lives in the home was away on vacation.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the flight had originated from Hanover County Municipal Airport in Virginia, north of Richmond. Officials said two men and two women were on board.

The names of the victims were not immediately disclosed. But Gregory P. Stoneman, the owner of the plane, said from Virginia that his friend, Chip Brierre, and another friend had borrowed it for a flight yesterday. He did not know if either was on board at the time of the crash.

Brierre's father, Roland, of Richmond, said his son, 41, and his son's wife, Cary, had taken off yesterday from Hanover County Airport, near their Richmond home, to attend a party hosted by a fishing acquaintance in New York City.

Authorities would not confirm that Brierre was one of the victims.

Three were killed immediately from the crash. The fourth, ejected from the plane upon impact, survived until 9:50 p.m., when he was pronounced dead at the Hackensack University Medical Center, officials said.

Michael Aragon, who lives four houses from the crash, said he ran into the back yard where he saw the man sitting on the ground a few feet from the wreckage, with his arms and legs on fire. The man looked up at Aragon and said: "Please help me. Please help me."

Aragon said he shouted for neighbors to bring water, and then an explosion in the plane prevented him from getting close to the man again. "It was too hot," Aragon said.

Frank Armeli, a Hackensack fireman who lives in Hasbrouck Heights, and his neighbor, Albert Kopec, ran to the burning man, whom they found sitting in a circle of flames. One of the two took his coat off and tried to beat out the flames before dragging the man through the fire to rescue workers.

The man was taken to the Hackensack hospital with second- and third-degree burns to 100 percent of his body, according to John J. LoCurto Jr., the doctor who directs the trauma department. LoCurto said the man was talking when he was brought in, complaining that he was in extreme pain.

Three others were also taken to the medical center: Armeli with burned hands, Kopec with a mild concussion, and Keith Bruining, a Hasbrouck Heights firefighter, for smoke inhalation. All were treated and released.

Witnesses said police and firefighters began arriving at the crash site literally seconds after the plane hit the ground.

One police officer at the scene said the pilot had contacted the Teterboro tower and reported that he was disoriented and losing control of the plane.

The plane disappeared from FAA radar screens at 5:32 p.m., said Bob Hancock, the air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

According to the FAA, the aircraft was a 19-year-old Beechcraft Baron 58TC. The pilot had filed a flight plan and was cleared to land on Runway 19 at Teterboro when he crashed two miles south of the airport. The weather was mild, with 5 mph winds and 10 miles visibility.

Reached by telephone in Mechanicsville, Va., Stoneman, the plane's owner, reacted with shock when told of the crash.

He said he knew of three on board "There should have been a professional pilot flying it," Stoneman said. "It was loaned to two friends."

Brierre's father said his son owns Commonwealth Boat Brokers in Glen Allen, a Richmond suburb. Brierre said his son and daughter-in-law have an 8-year-old son who was staying with him last night.

The elder Brierre said he could learn almost nothing from New Jersey authorities last night and didn't know what to tell his grandson.

"It's very troubling to us," he said. "I don't know what to do."

In Hasbrouck Heights, the crash shattered the holiday atmosphere of a neighborhood already glowing with menorahs and Christmas lights, sending flames and sparks above the tall oak trees. "The neighborhood lit up like the Fourth of July," said Margaret Canestrino, who lives on Washington Place.

"I thought my house exploded," said Joanne Minervino, who lives about two blocks from the crash site.

"Then when I looked outside I saw smoke behind my neighbor's house. The whole house shook. Everybody's house shook."

Several people witnessed the plane's abrupt descent.

"I saw these lights and they were kind of spiraling down. I thought, 'Is that really a plane? What the hell is that?" said Vinnia Schwartz, 34.

Chris Seppentino, 25, a sixth-grade teacher, was taking a walk a block away when he heard a rumble, looked up and saw the plane fly over his head, its wings wobbling.

Moments later, "there was a brilliant white flash of light; then a second or two later there was a tremendous explosion -- it was a huge boom."

An 11-year-old girl, Olivia Barton, said her whole house shook: "I almost fell on the ground, it shook so much."

Canestrino, a school bus aide, was on her front porch, about to leave to go shopping, when she heard "a huge bang." "It sounded like a cannon going off," she said. "I walked fast down the street and I could see tremendous smoke and showers of sparks, and then I could see all the fire reflected in the houses. The smoke was intense."

According to the NTSB, this was the eighth fatal plane crash in New Jersey this year. Before yesterday, 12 people had died in small-plane crashes since Jan. 11. The last fatal accident took place in a Newark neighborhood the day after Thanksgiving, when a family of three from Bethesda, Md., crashed in fog soon after their Beechcraft Bonanza BE35 took off from Linden Airport. Preliminary reports indicate the pilot lost critical instrumentation.

The last fatal crash near Teterboro was in January, when a twin-engine Cessna 310R crashed minutes after taking off on an air-courier flight to Wilmington, Del.

Pilot Ronny Wachter was killed when the plane nose-dived into the Conrail shipping yard in Kearny. He reported control problems shortly before air traffic controllers lost contact with him. The accident is still under investigation by the NTSB.

The safety board said it would review voice and radar tapes today of the Hasbrouck Heights crash.

Staff writers Rebecca Goldsmith, George Berkin, P.L. Wyckoff, Ana Alaya and Jeffrey C. Mays contributed to this report.