Downed plane located in NJ state forest, police say

OCEAN COUNTY — Authorities have located a small plane that crashed in Bass River State Forest sometime Saturday night.

At about 2:45 p.m., New Jersey State Police posted a message on Twitter saying the two-passenger plane was found by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter and emergency personnel were en route to the scene.

Troopers from the Tuckerton Station initially responded to the area at about 10:56 a.m. after receiving a call regarding a possible downed aircraft in Ocean County.

According to a statement from state police, the aircraft is believed to be a two-person plane that left Salisbury, Maryland Saturday en route to Ocean County Airport.

"The plane did not arrive as scheduled last night and attempts to communicate with the pilot were unsuccessful," state police said.

The cell phone that the pilot of the plane was carrying was tracked, leading authorities to the search area, NJ State Police Trooper Alejandro Goaz said. Authorities have not yet said who the cell phone was registered to and they cannot confirm who was on the plane when it went down.

Bob Considine, spokesman for the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, said the state's Forest Fire Service and State Park Police are also in the area assisting with the search.

This is a developing story. We will post additional updates as they become available.

Toniann Antonelli is a social content producer for NJ 101.5. She can be reached at toniann.antonelli@townsquaremedia.com, or on Twitter @ToniRadio1015.