'Nothing Will Be Normal Again': Plane Crash Survivor

GAITHERSBURG, MD — The new year can only be better than the one Ken Gemmell has endured.

The Gaithersburg husband and father is seeking normalcy in 2016 after his wife and two young sons were killed Dec. 8, 2014, when a private plane crashed into their house. Gemmell survived because he had left for work, dropping his daughter, Arabelle, off at school along the way.

“The shock of what my house looked like still haunts me to this day,” Gemmell recently told WTOP.

The private jet en route to the nearby Montgomery County Airport stalled and plowed into the home Gemmell and his wife, Marie, shared with their three children, Arabelle, Cole and Devin.

A fuel-laden wing of the plane sawed through the house on Drop Forge Lane, setting it ablaze. Marie and the boys were trapped inside the burning house.

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The random disaster touched people across Maryland, around the United States, and worldwide. Authorities said Marie died with her body covering her two young sons, trying to protect them from the smoke and flames.

“It is amazing to me that this touched so many people to try to reach out and try to console us in this trying time,” Gemmell told Montgomery Community Media in an interview. “Arabelle has told me the world is our family now.”

With an emotional holiday season behind him, Gemmell says he was overcome with sadness and memories and we looked at photos of his wife and boys.

“After the new year I missed them all a lot, and I looked at one picture and started looking at a few others, and it just overwhelmed me,” Gemmell said.

The father and his 8-year-old daughter are working to rebuild their lives. Steps toward “normalcy” for the pair included a Disney cruise for the New Year’s holiday, and a screening of the newest “Star Wars” movie when it opened.

On Christmas Day, Gemmell posted a Facebook message thanking people for their well wishes, calls, texts and Christmas cards.

“While nothing will be normal again, I don’t think I dwelled too much on what was missing. It was even easy to talk about Marie or the kids in context at points and not get lulled into sadness,” Gemmell wrote. “Thanks to all my family for being around for me and my daughter as well as she adores you all.”

»Marie Gemmell with her two sons, used with permission from GoFundMe site; crash scene photo from Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services