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Pilot killed in crash of small plane in South Jersey Pinelands

A small plane bound Saturday for Ocean County Airport was found Sunday afternoon, crashed in Bass River State Forest, according to the New Jersey State Police.

A small plane bound Saturday for Ocean County Airport was found Sunday afternoon, crashed in Bass River State Forest, according to the New Jersey State Police.

The pilot, William Lindley, 75, of Beechwood, N.J., was killed in the crash, state police said.

An investigation is being conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Authorities began searching for the plane, which could hold two people, around 11 a.m. Sunday after they could not make contact with Lindley, who had been scheduled to land in Ocean County on Saturday, state police said in a statement.

The plane had departed from an airport in Salisbury, Md., police said. After it did not arrive in Ocean County, authorities tracked the pilot's cellphone signal to the Bass River State Forest, where the New Jersey State Police Aviation and Urban Search and Rescue Units began looking for the aircraft.

New Jersey State Police said around midafternoon Sunday on Twitter that a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter had located the plane and that police were heading to the crash site.

Police said Lindley was the only person aboard when the plane went down for reasons that were not immediately clear.

cpalmer@phillynews.com

215-854-2817

@cs_palmer

Staff writer Jason Laughlin contributed to this article.