Belford couple survives plane crash in Old Bridge BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer OLD BRIDGE - A couple flying home from a vacation survived a plane crash at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park on Sunday. Brian Compton, 56, and his wife, Antoinette Rinella, 55, both of Belford, arrived in the area of Old Bridge Airport from their vacation in South Carolina at 7:05 p.m. Compton, the pilot and owner of the nearly 30-year-old plane, was approaching the runway for landing when the engine cut out. Compton was able to start the engine again in the air and circled the adjacent racetrack, but the engine cut out a second time. Compton reportedly tried to land in an open field, but ended up crashing into a fence and a concrete barricade. Old Bridge police officer Timothy Snee arrived at the scene to find the two passengers out of the plane and uninjured. Compton's 1978 Cessna 210 model aircraft was sitting on the raceway tracks, mostly crushed, and was leaking jet fuel after the accident, according to Snee's report. The South Old Bridge Fire Department and the Middlesex County Hazmat Unit responded to the scene and the investigation was turned over to Robert Harbist of the New Jersey Department of Transportation's Division of Aeronautics. The Federal Aviation Administration was also notified, according to police. Compton flew the plane from South Carolina, stopping for fuel at Robert J. Miller Air Park, Toms River, and filling the tank with 27 gallons of gas from an AvFuel truck before heading to Old Bridge. Old Bridge Airport, located off Pension Road, was the site of a fatal plane crash last year when a Staten Island, N.Y., family returning from Florida clipped a 50-foot-tall tree a quarter-mile from the runway. Two children sustained serious injuries in the crash and their parents were killed.