A small plane that took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey crashed in a residential neighborhood in Connecticut on Friday morning, and two children on the ground and the pilot of the plane were all missing and presumed dead, according to the authorities.
The plane, a multiengine turbo prop aircraft, crashed just north of Tweed New Haven Airport at 11:25 a.m., and caused devastating damage to two homes on Charter Oak Avenue in East Haven.
Doug Jackson, the East Haven fire chief, said that a mother was with her two children - a 1-year-old and a 13-year-old - in one of the homes at the time of the crash. She escaped, but the authorities feared her children did not.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut said that two bodies had been recovered but that there might still be more victims.
"There are reports that there are two children in the house," he said. "There are reports that there are one to three people on the plane."
Mr. Malloy said that the plane's wings struck both houses but that the fuselage landed squarely on one home.
While investigators were trying to determine the cause of the crash, Mr. Malloy said that the pilot had aborted his first landing attempt and was circling back for a second try.
"It appears that there was a first approach," he said. "For whatever reason that approach was not executed."
The pilot circled for another approach and that is when he crashed, Mr. Malloy said.
The children's mother, overwhelmed by grief and with a priest by her side, stood in the rain outside the house as dozens of emergency workers worked to control the blaze and conduct a search of the wreckage.
The flight from Teterboro to Tweed normally takes less than 30 minutes, and it did not appear to deviate from its planned flight path as it approached the airport. While it was a rainy and windy morning, the airport was operating normally and the authorities said there were no indications that the pilot issued a distress call before the crash.
Mayor Joseph Maturo of East Haven said that the mother was in the house with her children at the time of the crash and that she was obviously overwhelmed by events.
"It's total devastation in the back of the home," he said.
Neighbors rushed to the crash site as smoke billowed over the neighborhood and immediately posted photos and video on social media Web sites.
Chris Dogolo, 59, was at home a few doors down from the crash site when he heard a loud explosion and rushed outside.
"There were people running down the street panicking," Mr. Dogolo said. "A lady was screaming that there were two kids in the house," which was rapidly being engulfed by flames.
Several people ran into the burning home, searching for the children, only to be driven out by the smoke and fire, he said.
"It got progressively worse," he said. "Transformers were blowing up."
The crash caused partial collapses in the two homes, and it took firefighters about 30 minutes to get the blaze under control.
However, they knew almost immediately that there were people in one of the houses because the mother came running up to them, yelling that her children were inside. The other house was believed to be empty, according to the authorities.
Only the tail of the multiengine turbo prop aircraft, which can be configured to have between 7 and 11 passenger seats, was recognizable.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were on their way to the crash site and will take over the investigation. The authorities said that it was too soon to discuss what might have caused the crash.
Tweed New Haven Airport remained closed Friday afternoon for both incoming and outgoing flights, officials said.
Morgan Cianelli, who lives four blocks away, said that neighborhood residents are used to hearing planes fly overhead.
"We could tell this plane was super low, and it was just not normal," she said. "We had heard the engine completely give out. Like, you heard the engine over our house, and you could hear no more engine."
The plane was still in the air when the engine noise stopped, she said, noting that there was a lapse in time before she heard the explosion.
"All of the sudden the noise from the plane was gone," she said, "but we knew the plane was still up there."
Nick Corasaniti contributed reporting.
