A Manhattan investment banker, his wife and their two kids died Tuesday when their plane spiraled from the sky and exploded before horrified commuters on a New Jersey interstate. CLick below to read the rest of the story.
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One of the bankers’ co-workers also died in the fiery crash along Route 287 in suburban Harding, N.J., as all five passengers aboard the doomed flight perished.

Despite heavy traffic on the Morris County highway, there were no fatalities on the ground after the plane burst into flames upon impact.

Greenhill & Co. Managing Director Jeffrey F. Buckalew, a licensed pilot and the plane’s owner, was killed along with colleague Rakesh Chawla when their Georgia-bound flight plummeted to earth.

“It was like the plane was doing tricks or something, twirling and flipping,” said Chris Covello of Rockaway Township. “It started going straight down.

“I thought any second they were going to pull up. But then the wing came off and they went straight down.”

Buckalew’s wife Corinne and their two children, Jackson and Meriwether, were aboard the plane when it began pitching wildly in the sky before losing a wing and crashing into a wooded median.

“Jeff was one of the first employees of Greenhill,” said a company statement. “He and Rakesh were extraordinary professionals who were highly respected by colleagues and clients alike.”

A garbled transmission preceded the sudden and devastating plunge, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Buckalew, 45, was “an experienced pilot whose passion was flying,” the Greenhill statement said. He joined the company 15 years ago, moving over from Salomon Brothers.

Chawla, 36, was a managing director in the company’s financial services sector.

A wing from the plane was found in the tree of a home about a quarter-mile from the point of impact, and witnesses said the craft appeared to fall apart in mid-flight.

Wreckage was scattered across a half-mile stretch.

DN