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'We're Not Going to Make It' ; Survivor Describes Harrowing Lincoln Park Crash

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 November 2005, 15:00 CST

By MARGARET K. COLLINS, STAFF WRITER

LINCOLN PARK - Michael Carbone has the markings of a failed flight from a country airport indelibly imprinted in his mind and on his body.

On Saturday, Carbone hitched a ride with his friend and fellow pilot, Salvatore Scalato, in Scalato's four-seat, 1960 Piper Comanche. Carbone was supposed to buy lunch when they landed at Round Valley Reservoir in Hunterdon County.

But three minutes after takeoff from Lincoln Park Airport, 500 feet up, the plane's engine began making a terrifying plup-plup- plup sound.

"Oh, man, we're not going to make it," Carbone recalls shouting.

Scalato - "Comanche Mike" to his pilot pals - tried to return to the runway, Carbone said, but didn't make it over the 200 feet of woods at the end of the runway.

"I saw the prop hit the trees," Carbone said. "I pulled my feet back so that they weren't underneath the pedal and put my arms in front of my face because I didn't want the windshield to hit me. My glasses fell off, but I was able to pick them up. I saw us hit the tree and the next thing I saw we were hitting the ground."

Fearing fire, Carbone immediately ripped off his seat belt and rolled out the right side door.

The plane did not catch fire. Both Carbone, 58, of Pompton Plains, and Scalato, 60, of Little Ferry, stumbled out, with the help of nearby residents.

Both suffered cuts and broken bones; Carbone remained hospitalized Monday.

The near-miss not far from residential driveways with basketball hoops renewed a question asked every time a plane accident occurs here: How safe is Lincoln Park Airport?

Approached in person Monday, airport owner Joe Rendeiro and manager Pete Derosa declined to comment.

Although some residents have called for Lincoln Park Airport to be closed, officials, area pilots and Carbone himself said Monday that the airport is safe and well-maintained.

The airport - its paved runway is between Routes 287 and 202 and south of Route 23 - is a homey small-town operation dating to 1935. It's privately owned but open to the public.

The airport does not have an eyebrow-raising number of accidents, officials said. With 120 flights a day on average, there have been 25 accidents investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board since 1980. Two resulted in fatalities.

Most crashes occurred during takeoff or landing and did not result in major injuries. Seven involved student pilots.

The airport runs two flight schools on site. The majority of air traffic - about 70 percent - is by licensed pilots, said Dick Bidlack, vice president of the Lincoln Park Pilots Association.

Unlike at Teterboro and Morristown airports, most of the traffic in and out of Lincoln Park is for pleasure, not business.

"A lot of people come up here for lunch or dinner," said Bidlack, 80, who was a pilot in World War II. "From New York City, this is the first small airport you come to."

There's a down-home restaurant aside the runway. An easy and scenic flight path from the airport is over the Hudson River, said pilot Bob Mueller, 79, of Pompton Plains.

Aeronautical operations specialist Ron Harbist said Lincoln Park Airport is no more dangerous than other small airports in densely populated New Jersey. It doesn't have a control tower, but 41 of the 48 public airports in the state don't either, said Harbist, who inspects the airport for the state Division of Aeronautics.

The 2,942-foot runway is short but sufficient for licensed pilots of small planes, Harbist said. The end of the runway meets 200 feet of trees at the south end and a major road, Jacksonville Road, at the north end.

The biggest problem is congestion on the ground and in the air.

And it's a busy airspace, Harbist said.

"It's not like you're in Kansas," he said. "There's probably 20 airports in northern New Jersey. There's a lot of flights going in and out of Newark. Pilots have to be a lot more diligent."

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration said the damaged plane is secured in a hangar. They investigation is continuing.

With a morphine drip in his right arm, Carbone spoke from his room at Morristown Memorial Hospital on Monday. Scalato, released from St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, could not be reached.

Even with his left ankle chipped, his pelvis cracked, pins in two broken fingers, a screw in a broken left wrist and weeks of rehabilitation to come, Carbone said he would fly again from Lincoln Park Airport.

"I'll just pick a newer type of plane next time," he said.

***

E-mail: collinsp@northjersey.com

(SIDEBAR, page L01)

By the numbers

*-Number of planes parked at Lincoln Park Airport: 200

*-Runway length: 2,942 feet

*-Distance of obstruction (trees) from runway end: 200 feet

*-Number of FAA-investigated accidents since 1980: 25

*-Last fatal accident: 1994

*-Average number of daily takeoffs: 120

*-Airports without towers in New Jersey: 41 out of 49

Source: Federal Aviation Administration and New Jersey Department of Transportation

Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.

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