A Parkwood woman was one of two people killed on July 10 when a single-engine airplane flying out of Northeast Philadelphia Airport plummeted nose-first into a soybean field while approaching South Jersey Regional Airport in rural Burlington County.

Lumberton Township (N.J.) police identified the victims as Joan Rice, 54, of the 3200 block of Birch Road, and John B. Williams, 66, of the 1300 block of Gibson Road in Bensalem.

The crash occurred at 1:07 p.m., said Detective Sgt. Marc Sano of the Lumberton police. The aircraft was a two-seat 1977 Grumman American. It was privately owned but leased for use by Hortman Aviation Inc., based at Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

Williams, a pilot, had rented the aircraft from Hortman.

Bernard Rice, the husband of Joan Rice, said his wife was a regular flier, although she did not have a pilot's license and was not studying to be a pilot. The husband said he did not know Williams.

"She went out flying with people to different places all the time," Bernard Rice said.

Rice learned of the crash from Philadelphia police when he returned home from work that evening.

According to aviation experts at the scene, the plane crashed about 3,000 feet short of the South Jersey Regional runway. Residents near the site of the crash notified airport officials, who called 911.

"The male was ejected (from the plane). The female was not," Sano said, adding that both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.

According to Hortman Aviation spokesman Tom Heinsinger, Williams frequented the aviation company complex at Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

"He was a private pilot, certified for that aircraft. He was on a short flight from here to South Jersey, probably just sightseeing," explained Heinsinger.

Heinsinger said that Williams had reserved the aircraft for three hours. The plane left Northeast at about noon.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration have not released the official cause of the crash.

In a news conference the day after the incident, they reported that they found no evidence of engine failure or structural failure in the aircraft.

Williams was in the left seat, traditionally the "commander's" position, while Rice was in the seat on the right, investigators said, although it wasn't certain who had control of the aircraft when it went down. The plane could have been flown from either position.

Bob Mathews, manager of South Jersey Regional, believes the plane came up short of the runway because it was going too slow.

The plane slammed almost vertically into the soybean field, its cockpit disintegrated and its tail in the air.

"It appears from the airplane and (the angle that it hit) the ground that it ran out of air speed," Mathews said. "It ran out of lift."

Mathews said that the type of plane involved in the crash needs to maintain a speed of about 55 miles per hour or more. Otherwise, it can't fly.

The craft did not run out of fuel, as evidenced by a pool of it on the ground. There was no fire, but emergency personnel sprayed foam around the wreckage to neutralize the hazardous material.

"The engine shut down immediately," Mathews said. "The engine was buried in the dirt."

The airport manager said that the plane was capable of landing, or taking off, on the soybean field if circumstances called for it.

A man working on a home-construction crew nearby heard the crash, but his vision was blocked by trees. He said the aircraft sounded like other small planes that occasionally fly in at a low altitude.

The engine was producing a high-revving hum, according to Luke Strinati.

"It was a high-pitch 'waaaaaa,'" Strinati said. "It didn't sound like it was crashing.

"Then I heard a big thud, like a big heavy metal ball hitting the ground. I didn't even look over until I saw the fire engines coming," he said. "It wasn't a crashing sound."

Strinati estimated the altitude of the plane as it passed over his location, several hundred yards from the crash site, at about 80 feet, which is typical.

"They all come above us all the time," he said.

Ironically, according to Mathews, airport officials have been trying to extend the runway since 1991. South Jersey Regional's runway is less than 4,000 feet long and 50 feet wide, he said, compared to Northeast Philadelphia Airport's 5,000-by-75 runway.

South Jersey Regional officials had hoped to begin the runway project last year but ran into community opposition, Mathews added. The proposal is undergoing an environmental-impact study commissioned by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Mathews suggested that the pilot may have intentionally slowed down anticipating a shorter runway. Sano, the Lumberton police supervisor, said that parachutes were not deployed by the occupants of the plane.

The pilot was not in contact with the airport because there is no control tower at South Jersey Regional, Mathews said. The airport is privately owned but open for public use.

"It is an 'uncontrolled' airport," Mathews said. "The planes that fly in and out of here provide their own separation (from each other)."

The Grumman American "was designed and built to train students," Mathews said, although Williams was experienced, according to the Hortman Aviation official.

"He was a staple around here, all the time. He was a great guy and he was fun," Heinsinger said. "He was here almost every day. He's always here. He was a private pilot who just rented airplanes. Even on bad days, he would come and hang out and talk about flying with other pilots that just come here to talk or watch a refresher (instructional) video."

Grumman American planes are commonly used at Hortman.

"They're primarily used for training, but we also use them for renters, too," Heinsinger said. "It's a fun little plane to fly. They are very reliable. A lot of people like flying them, and they're great for just flying around the area."

That particular Grumman American, a two-seater, was what is called a "lease-back" plane, said Heinsinger. It was owned by a private company that leased it to Hortman for training flights and rentals to private pilots.

Less than a year ago, another Hortman aircraft based at Northeast Airport was involved in a fatal crash in Burlington County.

On Aug. 9, a twin-engine plane on a training flight from Northeast collided with another plane in the skies above Burlington Township, N.J., raining debris that sparked a fire at a home in a residential development.

All 11 people in the two planes -- including nine flying in one of the craft -- perished in the crash. The Piper Seminole flying from Northeast was occupied by a flight instructor and his student.

Last month, the NTSB issued a factual report about the Aug. 9 crash, although it contained no finding of fault. A follow-up report is expected later this year.

Heinsinger called the two recent crashes of Hortman planes a coincidence.

"We're a large company, we have a lot of aircraft," he said. "A lot of people rent all different types of aircraft from this airport. This being a large airport with a lot of inventory and a lot of renters, I guess the likelihood would be greater than something of a real small airport."

The two crashes follow a Nov. 28, 1997 mishap in which a 53-year-old pilot from Fox Chase and his passenger were killed after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport. Their plane crashed just short of the runway at St. Mary's Airport in Elk County, in northwestern Pennsylvania. That flight did not involve a Hortman craft.

The family-owned Hortman Aviation has been in operation since the 1940s. It offers both flight instruction and training, commercial and private license certification, and plane rentals to private pilots.