(Reuters) - A senior Greenhill & Co Inc (GHL.N) investment banker, an avid pilot who worked on some of his firm's biggest deals, was one of five people killed when his private plane crashed on a busy New Jersey highway on Tuesday.
Jeffrey Buckalew, 45, head of Greenhill's North American Advisory, was believed to have been traveling with his wife, Corinne, and their two children, Jackson and Meriwether, the boutique investment bank said in a statement.
Rakesh Chawla, 36, a Greenhill financial services sector banker, was also killed, the firm said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The single-engine Socata plane took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport and was headed for DeKalb Peachtree Airport near Atlanta, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said.
The causes of the accident are under investigation. Before the crash, the plane made contact with an air traffic controller asking for permission to seek higher altitude, which was granted, Peters said. Following this, the transmission became garbled and the plane fell off the radar, he added.
Buckalew, who joined Greenhill in 1996 from Salomon Brothers, was an experienced pilot with a passion for flying, Greenhill said.
Buckalew had advised on many of Greenhill's largest deals, including Delta Air Lines' (DAL.N) $3.1 billion acquisition of Northwest Airlines and Roche's (ROG.VX) purchase of Genentech Inc for $46.8 billion.
Greenhill shares ended trading almost flat at $35.30, underperforming the Dow Jones U.S. Financial Services Index .DJUSFI, which rose 3.8 percent on Tuesday.
"Jeff was one of the first employees of Greenhill. He and Rakesh were extraordinary professionals who were highly respected by colleagues and clients alike," Greenhill Chairman Robert Greenhill and Chief Executive Scott Bok said in a joint statement. "They will be sorely missed and our sympathies go out to their families and friends."
Chawla had joined the firm in 2003 from private equity firm Blackstone Group (BX.N).
New Jersey State police Trooper Christopher Kay said five people were confirmed dead, but could not comment on their identities as the investigation was continuing.
Debris was sprayed across Interstate 287 near Morristown, New Jersey, as the plane hit the southbound lane on Tuesday morning and then travelled across into the northbound lane. Traffic was restored later in the day, Kay said.
(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York, additional reporting by Paritosh Bansal in New York and Jessica Hall in Philadelphia; Editing by John Wallace, Richard Chang, Gary Hill)
source reuters
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