UPDATE: Early video from jet crash into MD home – 6 now confirmed dead
Early video above from ABC7 WJLA showing Montgomery County, Maryland firefighters shortly after arrival at the crash of a twin-engine jet into a home in Gaithersburg. Toward the end of the video there is a small explosion.
A small plane crashed into a house in the 19700 block of Drop Forge Lane off Snouffer School Road in Gaithersburg, killing six people – three in the plane and three in the home.
Montgomery County Fire chief Steven Lohr said all three people on-board the plane were killed in the 10:45 a.m. crash. The plane was ripped to shreds following impact, ABC7’s Brad Bell observed at the scene.
ABC7 News confirmed that Michael J. Rosenberg, the CEO of North Carolina-based Health Decisions, was among the three fatalities on the plane. He was described as “an experienced pilot.”
Rosenberg’s family, which lives locally, said they were “in shock” and also “devastated” to find out others were killed in the crash.
Meantime, Chief Lohr said a total of three homes were damaged from a fire that ignited as a result of the crash. Crews had the fire under control within an hour and were searching for anyone who may have been in the homes.
Lohr said that three residents of the home that was hit and suffered the heaviest damage also died – a mother and her two children.
Their two-story, wood-frame home was gutted by the impact of the crash and ensuing blaze. The first floor was nearly completely blown out and smoke drifted from a gaping hole in what was left of the collapsing roof.
The six-passenger plane that hit the home, identified by the FAA as an Embraer EMB-500/Phenom 100 twin-engine jet, was on approach to the nearby Montgomery County Airpark when it went down.
The crash happened less than 1 mile from the airpark and the house that was hit is in line with an airpark runway.
“The aircraft was on approach to Runway 14 at the airport when the accident occurred,” Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac said in an e-mailed statement.
Witnesses told ABC7 News that they saw the airplane “struggling desperately” to maintain altitude before going into a nosedive and crashing.
“It did not appear to me that the pilot was in control of the aircraft,” said Larry Matthews, an eyewitness who lives in the neighborhood.
Fred Pedreira, 67, who lives near the crash, said he had just returned home from the grocery store and was parking his car when he saw the jet and immediately knew something was wrong.
“This guy, when I saw him, for a fast jet with the wheels down, I said, ‘I think he’s coming in too low,'” Pedreira said in an interview with ABC7 News. “Then he was 90 degrees – sideways – and then he went belly-up into the house and it was a ball of fire. It was terrible.
“I tell you, I got goosebumps when I saw it. I said, ‘My God, those are people in that plane,” Pedreira said. “I just hope nobody was in that home.”
Byron Valencia, 31, who also lives nearby, said that he was in his kitchen when he heard a jet engine flying overhead, and then a big thump shortly after.
“When I opened my window, I could see smoke over the trees and I heard a small explosion, like a pop,” he said. “I could see the smoke rising … It’s scary.”
Emily Gradwohl, 22, who lives two doors down from the house the jet hit, was home at the time of the crash and ran outside to see what had happened.
“I heard like a loud crash, and the whole house just shook,” Gradwohl said. “We got jackets on, ran outside and saw one of the houses completely set on fire.”
She said planes fly low over the neighborhood every day but she had never worried about a crash until now.
National Transportation Safety Board records reviewed by ABC7 News indicated there have been at least 14 plane crashes in Gaithersburg since 1995. Two were deadly with five total fatalities in those prior crashes.
The most recent incidents – which didn’t result in any fatalities – occurred in August and September, according to federal records, and were labeled a forced landing and a “landing overrun.”
Air traffic control tapes obtained by ABC7 News indicated there were reportedly large numbers of birds reported near the airpark just before Monday’s crash. It was unclear if this played a role, but birds being caught in plane engines has been a factor in other crashes – most notably the so-called ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ airliner emergency landing on a river in New York City.
ABC7 meteorologist Jacqui Jeras said there was light snow in the vicinity of the Montgomery County airport at time of the crash, with a temperature just below freezing at 31 degrees – but there were no reports of any icing issues.
The plane, built in 2009 in Brazil, was owned by Sage Aviation, LLC out of Fort Orange, Florida. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
Investigators with both the FAA and the NTSB were on scene trying to determine exactly what caused the crash.
Six people are dead after a plane crash in Gaithersburg late Monday morning.
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue has confirmed that three people were inside a home on Drop Forge Lane when a corporate jet crashed into it. Those three people, along with three people in the plane, are all confirmed dead.
A relative tells WUSA9 that the three people inside the home at the time of the crash were a mother, a toddler and a two-month old. The father and a third child were not home at the time of the crash, officials said.
A corporate jet crashed into a house in the 19700 block of Drop Forge Lane off Snouffer School Road in the neighborhood of Hunters Woods around 10:45 a.m.
The NTSB has sent a go-team to the site, where three homes were damaged. Foamfirefighters use to battle fires is all around the scene. Senior Investigator Timothy LeBaron is leading the go-team as investigator-in-charge. NTSB Board Member Robert L. Sumwalt is accompanying the team and will serve as the principal spokesman during the on-scene phase of the investigation.
The first call came in at 10:44 a.m. from the National Guard Armory for the report of an explosion, and units were on the scene in approximately seven minutes, Lohr said at an initial press conference. Utility crews are also on the scene and Lorh said it is safe for residents in the area. Electricity has been temporarily cut off.
