5 dead as plane crashes on Interstate 287

A small private plane crashed on a busy New Jersey highway Tuesday, killing five people, including two managing directors with New York-based investment bank Greenhill & Co. Inc.

The single-engine Socata plane took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport and was headed for DeKalb Peachtree Airport near Atlanta, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said.

The plane crashed onto Interstate 287 near Morristown, N.J., police said. Federal investigators said the pilot had discussed icing with controllers just before the plane went down but they were unsure what role, if any, icing played in the crash.

Jeffrey Buckalew, 45, head of Greenhill's North American advisory activities, was believed to have been on the plane along with his wife and two children, the firm said.

The plane belonged to Buckalew, who joined Greenhill in 1996 from Salomon Brothers. He was an experienced pilot with a passion for flying, Greenhill said.

Also on board was Rakesh Chawla, 36, a Greenhill financial services sector banker, the firm added.

"Jeff was one of the first employees of Greenhill. He and Rakesh were extraordinary professionals who were highly respected by colleagues and clients alike," Greenhill chairman Robert Greenhill and chief executive Scott Bok said in a joint statement.

Wreckage was scattered over at least a half-mile-wide area, with a section found lodged in a tree of a home about a quarter-mile away.

Chris Covello of Rockaway Township said he saw the plane spin out of control from the car dealership where he works in Morristown, near the site of the crash.

"It was like the plane was doing tricks or something, twirling and flipping. It started going straight down. I thought any second they were going to pull up. But then the wing came off and they went straight down," he said.

The high-performance, Socata TBM-700 turboprop crashed about 14 minutes into its flight. The Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot had requested clearance to a higher altitude shortly before the plane dropped off radar. The NTSB said the plane had climbed to 17,500 feet.

The pilot had a seven-second call with a controller about icing shortly before the crash, said Robert Gretz, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, at a late-day news conference.

Gretz said he did not know if the pilot was reporting icing or was questioning the location of icing conditions. He said he was unaware of conditions that would have required deicing.