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FOUR KILLED AS SMALL PLANE BREAKS UP OVER THE SHORE
Wreckage rains down on roofs, streets and woods

Thursday, June 01, 2006
BY BRIAN DONOHUE AND RUDY LARINI
Star-Ledger Staff

A small plane bound for Atlantic City mysteriously broke apart in the sky just west of Long Beach Island yesterday morning, leaving a half-mile trail of debris that landed on streets and roofs before the main wreckage fell into a wooded area, killing all four on board.

The pilot was identified as [color="Red"]Ronald Ziv, 53, of Basking Ridge, an [color="red"]Israeli national who only recently registered the single-engine plane, a 27-year-old Piper PA-28 Dakota. The other victims were Ziv's wife, [color="red"]Rachel Ziv, 40, and a Manalapan couple, [color="red"]David Nimrod, 48, and [color="red"]Karen Nimrod, 50.

The spread of wreckage on a west-to-east path across Route 72, a busy beach access road, led to early speculation by officials that two aircraft might have been involved in a mid-air collision, but that was later refuted by eyewitness accounts and by the examination of debris.

Two investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were due to arrive at the scene in Stafford Township this morning.

Late yesterday, authorities were using chain saws and a backhoe to clear a path to the main wreckage, which they hope to haul out today. The victims' bodies were removed by evening.

The crash occurred shortly before 11 a.m. over Beach Haven West, a community of bungalows and larger homes built around a network of lagoons across Manahawkin Bay from Long Beach Island.

Stafford police Capt. Charles Schweigart said the first phone calls alerting authorities to the accident were made at 10:43 a.m. While there were no casualties on the ground, the crash horrified residents and workers in the quiet Shore community.

"We heard the engine racing. It was very noisy and then a bang," said Paul Diener, a carpenter who was on a job near the crash site. "Then, like two minutes later, that's when all this stuff started falling out of the sky."

A big piece of wreckage, believed to be part of a wing, fell into a canal opposite the house where Diener was working. He counted at least 35 pieces, most of them very small.

The plane was owned by Aviron Aviation LLC of North Plainfield. Ziv, a licensed pilot, was the firm's registered agent. Records indicate Aviron acquired the aircraft in April and received a registration certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration only last week. Previously, the Piper was registered to a trust company in the United Kingdom.

Ziv's main business, Pri Tov Corp., operated out of the North Plainfield address. Neighbors in Basking Ridge said the company, with a second office in Israel, involved the sale of orange pulp to the juice industry.

Karen Lee, Pri Tov's New Jersey office manager, said Ziv had planned to fly yesterday morning with his wife. The couple flew out of Somerset Airport in Bedminster Township, where Ziv based his Piper.

Airport personnel confirmed the plane took off from there shortly before 9 a.m.

"He (Ziv) came into the office and borrowed a headset and then was on his way to see some friends," said Melanie Marcols, a Somerset Airport secretary working her first day on the job.

Ziv piloted the plane to Old Bridge Airport, where he picked up the Nimrods. According to FAA spokesman Jim Peters, the flight took off from Old Bridge at 10:17 a.m., bound for Bader Field in Atlantic City.

There was no flight plan filed. Private pilots are not required to file unless they are instrument-rated and wish to use FAA navigation assistance.

"If it's good weather, they can just fly," Peters said.

Peters would not speculate on a cause of the crash or why the aircraft appeared to come apart in the air.

"That will be part of the NTSB investigation," he said. "They won't rule anything out."

The spread of wreckage, though, is an indication the plane broke up before it crashed. Such a breakup can be caused by a number of factors, including structural failure, sabotage or severe aerodynamic stress of an aircraft out of control.

FAA records show Ziv received his pilot's license less than a year ago, after receiving instruction from Somerset Air Service, a flight school at Somerset Airport.

Several people around the crash site reported hearing the roar of the plane's engine, followed by the sound of an explosion, before "lots of tiny pieces, like confetti," came down from above, said Joe Policastro, who lives about two blocks away on Dorothy Drive.

One large piece of debris, thought to be part of the tail assembly, floated down like a leaf and landed on the roof of another house on Policastro's street.

Wayne Sinclair, a commercial airline pilot from Pennsylvania, was cleaning his boat in the lagoon behind his summer home in Beach Haven West when he heard what sounded like a plane running out of gas -- a sound he said he knows.

"It really hits home," said Sinclair, whose house is only about 700 yards from the crash site. "It just missed this neighborhood. It would have been a lot more tragic."

Jerry Gorski, another Beach Haven West resident, said he heard the plane's engine die and restart. Then he heard a "bang."

After driving close to the crash site, north of Route 72, he and a friend went thrashing through heavy underbrush and into woods in search of the wreckage.

"I was running through, getting cut up," he said. "I was just worried about people -- if they were alive."

Jeff Holloway, who works for the Stafford Township Department of Public Works, was called to the crash site to help rescuers clear brush. He appeared shaken by the crash.

"You never know when it's your time," Holloway said.

In the leafy townhouse development where the Zivs lived, news of the crash spread from neighbor to neighbor throughout the afternoon.

Arlene DiLorenzo, who lived across the court from the Zivs' tan townhouse, was described by several neighbors as their closest friend. She gasped when she learned about the plane crash.

"I can't believe they're dead. I just saw them this morning. They waved to me," she said.

[color="red"]DiLorenzo said the Zivs traveled often and owned another home in Israel. Rachel Ziv had just arrived back from Israel on Friday after a three-month stay, she said, and was planning on returning in mid-June.

The couple had lived in the development for about six years, DiLorenzo said. Ronald Ziv, she said, was previously married and has two teenage sons. Ziv sometimes took the boys to Israel with him on trips during the summer, DiLorenzo said.

She described Rachel Ziv as "warm," "loving" and "spiritual."

The Zivs' home yesterday was quiet. Out front sat a blue Toyota DiLorenzo said belonged to Rachel Ziv. The outdoor light remained on, as if the couple had rushed out and forgotten to turn it off.

"It's just heartbreaking," DiLorenzo said. "I can't believe I will never see Rachel again."

At the Manalapan home of David and Karen Nimrod, a sister of Karen Nimrod sought to comfort the couple's two sons. A portable basketball hoop sat in the driveway of the colonial-style home.

The woman, who identified herself only as Sue, said she knew little about the crash that claimed her sister and brother-in-law.

"They were really, really wonderful, wonderful people," she said.