Posted on 12/08/2014 3:56:43 PM PST by Bettyprob
A mom and her two children are dead after a private jet crashed into their Maryland home today, a disaster that also killed the three people aboard the plane, authorities said.
The jet crashed in Gaithersburg, about a mile north of the Montgomery County Airpark. The plane exploded, setting fires and damaging three houses, fire officials said.
The plane sliced through the roof of one home, and the main part of the fuselage and the tail landed against a second house. One of the wings "catapulted" into a third house, where the majority of the fire damage occurred, Robert Sumwalt of the National Transportation Safety Board said at a news conference today.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Just damn.
Yet another pilot heart attack, perhaps?
How awful!
Could go to NTSB and get reports: http://library.erau.edu/find/online-full-text/ntsb/aircraft-accident-reports.html
Speculation that it was a bird strike.
I wonder what the weather was like this morning. The IFR approach into GAI is difficult to do accurately in poor conditions, tho I think the GPS aapproach in much better.
Any relationship between the people in the house and the people in the plane?
Clear with light winds.
This will definitely renew the calls to close the Montgomery County Airpark.
RIP.
Terrible. They just reported this on Greta’s show and aired photos of the family. Terrible for the father and remaining child. Not to mention the families of the other victims too. Tragedies are especially hard around the holidays.
very sad
Tragic.
Weather-wise I would be looking more at icing picked up at a higher altitude, I don't know anything about the Phenom de-icing capability, but the plane can't be that old. The NTSB said they have the full data recorders and they look like they are in good shape. Those are already at the DC office and I am sure they will be working the boxes throughout the night.
Stall? Landing speed of a jet is around 135kts give or take type. So if ....just saying.
The comments at the ABC page are a carnival of ignorance. Reminds me of *spit* Bryant Gumbel*spit* fiercely blaming ATC and the airline pilots on 9-11 and denying the possibility of terrorism even AFTER the second plane had hit the WTC.
It is so hard to read something like this. The horror can't be told in words.
Lord, please comfort this man and his surviving son.
The pilot of the single-engine turboprop was on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight and cancelled his IFR flight plan after being cleared for a visual approach to the destination airport. He flew a left traffic pattern for runway 32, a 4,202-foot-long, 75-foot-wide, asphalt runway. The pilot reported that the airplane crossed the runway threshold at 81 knots and touched down normally, with the stall warning horn sounding. The airplane subsequently drifted left and the pilot attempted to correct with right rudder input; however, the airplane continued to drift to the left side of the runway. The pilot then initiated a go-around and cognizant of risk of torque roll at low speeds did not apply full power. The airplane climbed to about 10 feet above the ground. At that time, the airplane was in a 20-degree left bank and the pilot applied full right aileron input to correct. The airplane then descended in a left turn, the pilot retarded the throttle, and braced for impact. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector reported that the airplane traveled about 100 feet off the left side of the runway, nosed down in mud, and came to rest in trees. Examination of the wreckage by the inspector did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions, nor did the pilot report any. The reported wind, about the time of the accident, was from 310 degrees at 10 knots, gusting to 15 knots.
Pilot had an accident at this same airport (didn’t control the plane while doing the turn for approach). He walked away in March 2010.
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