Pilot in Gaithersburg Crash Had Similar Stall Problem in 2010 Plane Crash: Authorities

By Karen Wall and Deb Belt

The pilot whose plane crashed Monday in Gaithersburg, killing a mother and her two young sons in their home on Drop Forge Lane, had a plane stall on its landing approach in a crash in 2010.

Michael Rosenberg, CEO of North Carolina-based Health Decisions, was at the controls Monday of the Embraer EMB-500/Phenom 100 that crashed in Gaithersburg, killing six people, including Marie Wagner Gemmell, 36, and her two young sons, Cole, 3, and Devin, 6-1/2 weeks, when the fuel-laden wing of the plane smashed into their home.

Gemmell, a Brick, NJ, native, and her sons died of smoke inhalation, according to reports. Rosenberg and his two passengers all died of traumatic injury from the crash, Montgomery County Police said.

During the last 20 seconds of Monday’s flight, an automated verbal warning in the cockpit chanted “stall-stall, stall-stall,” according to preliminary findings on the crash from the National Transportation Safety Board. While the plane’s twin jet engines continued to function normally, the plane slowed too dramatically to reach the runway, according to a report in the Baltimore Sun.

In Rosenberg’s 2010 crash, also at Montgomery County Air Park, the Sun reported, Rosenberg’s single-engine turboprop plane approached the runway with stall warnings sounding as he touched down, according to an NTSB report. The plane drifted to the left side of the 75-foot-wide runway, and Rosenberg attempted to lift off again with the intent of circling the airport for a second landing attempt, but crashed. The NTSB ruled pilot error in the crash.

Rosenberg, 66, and two other members of his company, David Hartman, 52, and Chijioke Ogbuka, 31, who were on their way to a meeting with Food and Drug Administration officials in Montgomery County, were killed in the crash, according to the Washington Post.

Rosenberg had 4,500 hours of flying time, was certified as a commercial pilot and as a flight instructor. He also was rated to fly the Phenom, a sophisticated six-passenger jet that costs more than $4 million and is capable of speeds in excess of 400 mph.

A final report on Monday’s crash is not expected until sometime next year.

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