3 killed in NJ plane crash were father, son, nephew from Poland; pilot, owner also dead

3 killed in NJ plane crash were family from Poland

WALL TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Three of the five people who died when a small plane broke apart and tore through a snowy field next to a runway were members of a family visiting from Poland, police said Tuesday.

The victims included 38-year-old Andrzej Zajaczkowski of Warsaw, his 14-year-old son, Patryk, and his 6-year-old nephew, Filip Zajaczkowski, Wall Township police said.

The three were family friends of the plane’s owner, 45-year-old Jacek Mazurek, of Kearny. He was killed in the crash along with the pilot, 46-year-old Wojciech G. Nykaza, of Lodi.

Both Mazurek and Nykaza lived in an area of northern New Jersey that has one of the biggest Polish populations in the U.S., and both had current pilot’s licenses, according to records.

Lefzek Hapunik, Mazurek’s neighbor, said he was a native of Poland who came to the U.S. about 20 years ago and worked importing cars from Europe to New Jersey, Florida and the Dominican Republic. He often flew between the places himself, Hapunik said.

He planned to take his friends visiting from Warsaw on an aerial tour of the Jersey shore, Hapunik said — just one of many ways he helped other people from Poland.

“It’s the talk of the Polish community,” Hapunik said.

The 6-year-old’s parents were at the Monmouth Executive Airport when the plane went down just before 4 p.m. Monday, but they did not see the crash, police Capt. Timothy Clayton said.

A National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that it could be more than a year before the cause of the crash is determined.

The twin-engine Cessna 337 had taken off and then circled Monmouth Executive Airport when a piece of the plane fell on the runway, investigator Jose Obregon said. Debris scattered more than 200 feet.

On Tuesday, investigators were measuring where debris fell and inspecting the mangled fuselage as snow fell on the airport. Obregon said pieces would later be taken to an indoor facility where the plane could be taken apart.

While the aircraft did not have a black box data recorder, Obregon said it’s possible that some equipment may have retained data that would offer clues as to why the crash happened.

Obregon said the plane was likely in the air no more than 7 or 8 minutes and would not have reached an altitude of much more than 1,000 feet.

Officials aren’t sure whether the pilot was trying to land or the crash occurred as the plane passed near the runway.

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Associated Press writers Samantha Henry and David Porter in Kearny contributed to this report.