Mom, Two Children Die When Plane Hits Their House

By Tom Davis and Deb Belt

A Gaithersburg mother and her two children were among six people killed when a plane crashed into their house in Maryland Monday, authorities said.

Marie Gemmell, a stay-at-home mom, and two of her children died when the aircraft hit their house early Monday. A 5-year-old daughter went to school Monday morning and was reportedly safe; the father of the family, Kenneth, was not home when the crash happened, according to the AP.

A gofundme page has been set up for the Gemmell family, already raising more than $12,000 by the end of Monday.

See Also: UPDATE: 6 Dead After Plane Crashes into Gaithersburg House: Reports

The victims of the ground - Gemmel, 36; Cole, 3; and Devin, 6 weeks - were in the second floor bathroom when the accident happened. Gemmell was lying on top of her kids apparently to shield her children from the crash and the fire, according to USA Today.

A wing of the aircraft containing fuel went into that house; crews subsequently put out the fire and shut off the utilities while they searched. Later, they found the bodies, according to USA Today.

Montgomery County, Md. emergency officials say three people in the plane also died as it crashed into the Gaithersburg house.

County Fire and Rescue Services spokesman Pete Piringer said via Twitter about 10:45 a.m. Monday that the crash happened on Drop Forge Lane off Snouffer School Road. The twin-engine 10-passenger plane came down near houses on Drop Forge Lane near Blue Smoke Lane, he said.

Tracy Everett, an eyewitness to the crash, said he saw the plane flying erratically just a couple hundred feet above the treetops. The trouble plane “was up, down, left, right, struggling to keep his position,” Everett told Montgomery Community Media.

The plane veered right, then made a sharp left before taking a “nose barrel dive into the neighborhood,” Everett said. “Just a bad scene.”

Plane’s Owner Involved in Earlier Crash

The plane’s owner, Dr. Michael J. Rosenberg - CEO of North Carolina-based Health Decisions - was among the three people killed on the plane, reports WJLA TV. He was described as an experienced pilot.

Authorities have not released the identities of his two passengers.

Rosenberg had survived a March 2010 crash into some trees near the same air field -- Montgomery County Airpark. That accident destroyed his $1.4 million turbo-prop plane. “The pilot’s failure to maintain aircraft control while performing a go-around” was cited by the NTSB as the crash cause, reports WJLA.

Patch will update this story as details become available.