Tom Groenfeldt
| Bergen Record
Bruce Springsteen fans at ‘Born to Run’ 50th anniversary event.
Bruce Springsteen fans at ‘Born to Run’ 50th anniversary event in Pollak Theatre at Monmouth U. for ‘Jungleland ’75’ showing on Sept. 5. 2025.
Originally published Oct. 18, 1988 in the Bergen Record.
A charter aviation company involved in a fatal crash at Morristown Airport last summer had been used by a number of celebrities before its license was revoked last month for alleged safety violations.
Among the passengers the charter company has carried have been Bruce Springsteen, the rock band Pink Floyd, NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, members of the Dukakis campaign, and Republican Sen. Bob Dole, the St. Petersburg Times has reported.
Northeast Jet Corporation’s operating license was revoked Sept. 30 by the Federal Aviation Administration, which charged the Allentown, Pa., company had kept fraudulent maintenance records and had a string of safety violations going back to 1985.
While awaiting a Nov. 7 hearing on the revocation, Northeast is selling off its fleet, officials said.
A twin-engine Learjet 35 owned by the company crashed at the Morristown airport July 6, killing a co-pilot. The accident still is under FAA investigation.
According to FAA records quoted in the St. Petersburg Times, a Northeast Learjet 25D flying from Jacksonville to New Orleans in 1980 plunged 43,000 feet into the Gulf of Mexico killing both pilots, the only people aboard. A federal investigation concluded the co-pilot had been flying the plane with inadequate supervision and that the Learjet’s altitude warning horn had been disconnected.
Another disconnected warning horn led a Northeast Learjet crew to hit the runway at a Coatesville, Pa., airport with the plane’s landing gear still up, according to the newspaper report. The pilot got the airplane airborne again and later landed with the gear down, but the initial impact destroyed antennas and a flight beacon.
The company said it has sold its four Learjets and is negotiating to sell its one Gulfstream jet too because it can’t afford to keep the planes without flying them. It has also cut its 85-member staff in half, said Earl Holtz, the corporation’s president.