Gaithersburg Plane Crash: Public Meeting Set as Residents Await Report

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Federal officials continue to investigate what caused a private jet to slam into a Gaithersburg neighborhood nearly a year ago, but Montgomery County will hold a meeting next week to discuss the operation of the airport the errant plane was headed toward.

The Dec. 8, 2014 plane crash killed six people, including a Gaithersburg mother and her two young sons. Federal authorities have said a pilot’s mistakes likely led a twin-engine jet to stall as it flew from Chapel Hill, NC, to Maryland. The crash happened less than a mile from the Montgomery County Airpark.

A fuel-filled portion of the jet slammed into the home of Marie Gemmell, 36, and her sons, Cole, 3, and Devin, 1 ½ months. Rescuers later found the bodies of the mother and sons, with Marie Gemmell evidently trying to protect her boys from the smoke and flames that enveloped their house.

The crash happened shortly after Marie Gemmell’s husband, Ken, had dropped off their daughter, Arabelle, at school and he was safely at work in Virginia.

The plane’s occupants who died were identified by Montgomery County Police as pilot Michael Rosenberg, 66; David Hartman, 52; and Chijioke Ogbuka, 31, all of Raleigh, NC.

A public meeting will be held next week to address concerns about the airpark’s operations, reports WTOP. The meeting is set for 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4 at the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission Training Room, 16641 Crabbs Branch Way in Rockville.

Airport Operations

Montgomery Revenue Authority Executive Director Keith Miller has said previously he doesn’t believe there will be any changes to Airpark operations until the National Transportation Safety Board issues its final accident report, which could take a year.

A local group called the Concerned Citizens Alliance has been seeking tighter controls on who flies in and out of the airport and more safety precautions for a growing residential community that surrounds it. County Executive Isiah Leggett in February called for a review of the airport’s operations by the Montgomery County Revenue Authority.

The airpark averaged a total of 60,000 take-offs or landings last year. At its busiest in 2001, the airpark logged more than 160,000 operations, Miller said.

The Montgomery County Airpark is a pilot controlled airpark, meaning pilots communicate with one another on a radio frequency. In addition, all flights have to register with Potomac Consolidated TRACON, an air traffic control service.

“We have to look at what is really the cause of this accident. Was there something at the airpark that caused this horrific accident? Any fatality is tragic and when you have an accident like this let’s sit back and take a look and review and see if there are any changes that need to be made,” Miller told MyMCMedia.

The Montgomery County Airpark is owned and operated by the quasi-governmental Montgomery County Revenue Authority, which, in turn, is led by a six-member board of directors.

Related stories:

• ‘The World Is Our Family Now’: Husband and Father of Plane Crash Victims
• Mom, Two Children Die When Plane Hits Their House
• ‘No Words Can Describe Our Loss:’ Gaithersburg Man

Paramedic Engine 728 Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service was the first fire and rescue unit to arrive at the crash, where they found a house on fire and aircraft parts strewn across the neighborhood.

“Myself and Firefighter Dougherty made entry into the house and we advanced about 10 to 15 feet in, and the heat was just too intense and we had to pull back and wait for more firefighters to get there. And then we went back in,” Capt. Carl Mauney, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, told WJLA.

See also:

• Passenger Identified in Plane Crash; Investigation Continues
• Mom, Two Children Die When Plane Hits Their House
• Death of Mom, Sons in Plane Crash Sends Shockwaves Through Community
• UPDATE: 6 Dead After Plane Crashes into Gaithersburg House: Reports
• Pilot in Gaithersburg Crash Had Similar Stall Problem in 2010 Plane Crash: Authorities
• Friends, Strangers Donate More Than $340K to Plane Crash Family
• ‘Heat Was Just Too Intense’: Rescuers at Plane Crash

The random disaster touched people across Maryland, around the United States, and worldwide.

“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,” Ken Gemmell said later. “Arabelle has told me the world is our family now.”

An online fundraiser via a GoFundMe account to help survivors Ken Gemmell and his daughter, Arabelle, has raised more than $495,000 raised by nearly 10,500 donors.

»Investigators at the scene of a 2014 plane crash in Gaithersburg that killed six people. Credit: Pete Piringer/MCFRS Photos of Marie Gemmell and family from Facebook/GoFundMe site