Flight 1 crashed into Pumpkin Patch Channel, Jamaica Bay, at 10:08:49, while angled at 78° and on a magnetic heading of 300°. Passengers aboard a Mohawk Airlines plane bound for Albany that took off immediately after Flight 1 watched the plane plunge into the bay. The jet exploded upon impact, a tall splash of brackish water and black smoke erupted from the site, and the scattered debris and fuel caught fire. Long Island residents described hearing explosions that shook the foundations of nearby houses, though no one on the ground is known to have witnessed the airliner hitting the swamp. However, a few men at Naval Air Station New York/Floyd Bennett Field saw the massive column of water rising above the hangars, and one guard—at his post on the Cross Bay Bridge—saw the aircraft roll over.