Twin-engine Crash Claims Experienced Pilot

A Cessna 414 crashed into a house in a residential neighborhood in Colonia, New Jersey—approximately three miles from Linden Airport—on October 29 around 11 a.m. The pilot, Michael Schloss, 74, was a retired doctor with decades of flight experience. He was heading to New York City from Leesburg Executive Airport in Virginia to give a lecture.

Schloss perished in the crash that set the unoccupied home ablaze and damaged two neighboring houses. No one on the ground was injured. Local officials reported the cabin-class piston twin plunged through the roof of the home.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the pilot was in communication with air traffic control and was cleared for an approach into Linden Airport. The aircraft subsequently lost radar contact and communications ceased without a distress call. Schloss had filed an IFR flight plan for the approximately one-hour trip before departure. Weather at the time of the accident was overcast and misty, with a ceiling below 1,000 feet.