BELLEPLAIN — An Atlantic City police officer and his wife were identified as the victims in the crash of a small plane that was performing acrobatic stunts and spiraled out of control and crashed here on Broad Street, in front of the Belleplain Fire House.
According to State Police Sgt. Julian Castellanos, the aircraft was a Harmon Rocket acrobatic model performing stunts out of Woodbine Municipal Airport when the aircraft lost control and went down at 7:35 p.m.
Arletta Creamer of Belleplain witnessed the crash. “The plane went over head once and headed south and then flew back right over head he turned his engine off and it did not go back on. He kept spiraling and I said to my daughter-in-law, I don’t think he’s going to recover, next thing you know, there was a big ball of fire — he went down.”
Initial radio reports indicated this may have been a mid-air collision, however State Police are only confirming one aircraft down.
Two passengers on board, according to Castellanos, were Dennis McGurk Jr., 37, and his 34-year-old wife Oksana McGurk, both of Mays Landing.
Eyewitness Arletta Creamer was sure only one plane was involved. “No it wasn’t a mid-air collision. Believe me, he came straight down and he never attempted to recover. There was definitely no another plane involved.”
As of midnight on June 20th Emergency 1st responders were actively searching off of Weatherby Rd.
Belleplain, Woodbine and Tuckahoe fire departments., NJ Forest Fire Service and Belleplain Emergency Corps responded to the crash.
The crash is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and the NJ Dept of Transportation Division of Aeronautics.
No further information is available at this time.
