At least 15 people were hospitalized after a small plane veered off the runway at a New Jersey airport and crashed into the woods.

Monroe Township Police Chief John McBride, one of the first on the scene, said the plane "just looked like a big pile of metal" with several people crawling out of it, covered in fuel from the aircraft.

In a statement to Action News, the Skydive Cross Keys, the company that leases the aircraft, says the issues began around 3,000 feet in the air.