A small plane piloted by a prominent cardiologist heading toward New York City for a lecture was spotted flying unusually low just before 11 a.m. on Tuesday.

It clipped trees and the roof of a house in northern New Jersey as it lost control on a morning damp with drizzle and cloaked in fog.

Neighbors in the suburb of Colonia described a deafening sound as the plane, a twin-engine Cessna 414, crashed through the roof of a second home, plummeting two floors into the basement.

The inferno that followed engulfed the home and spread quickly to two adjacent houses, drawing emergency responders from eight nearby towns to the tree-lined street.