Plane Crash Brought Call for Madison First Responders

The Madison Fire Department were among the many agencies and departments that responded to the crash of a single-engine plane along Route 287 in Morris Township on Tuesday.

Borough first responders answered a call for mutual aid at about 11 a.m. from authorities at the crash site, who specifically requested the department's ladder truck to aid in the search for debris that may have fallen from the stricken aircraft.

A family of two adults and two children and a friend aboard the aircraft, on its way from Teterboro Airport to Georgia, were killed in the crash.

Wreckage was scattered over a half-mile area, and firefighters combed through dense woods around Route 287 searching for debris that could yield clues as to the cause of the crash.

Madison's ladder truck was deployed to 100 Southgate Parkway in Morris Township where firefighters surveyed the roofs of office buildings for any debris from the doomed airplane, said Chief Louis DeRosa, but they found none.

"We did come across eyewitnesses who saw the plane go down, so we made sure that investigators were made aware," DeRosa said.

DeRosa said it had been nearly a decade since the department last handled an aviation accident, that involving a downed plane just outside Morristown Airport.

Madison and other area fire companies provide mutual aid to the airport.