'The World Is Our Family Now': Husband and Father of Plane Crash Victims

As Ken Gemmell grapples with the tragedy that brought his family’s story to the attention of the world last month, he’s also touched by the thoughts and actions of strangers a world away from his home in suburban Washington, D.C.

On Dec. 8, a private jet en route to the nearby Montgomery County Airport stalled and plowed into the Gaithersburg home he 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. While Ken was safely at work in Virginia after he dropped Arabelle off at school, Marie and the boys were trapped inside the burning house.

“This wouldn’t have been on my top 1,000 fears in life,” he recently told Montgomery Community Media in an interview.

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 said. “Arabelle has told me the world is our family now.”

Gemmell told MyMCMedia he counted about 1,000 Christmas and condolence cards in the past month. Clothing and other items were donate from as far away as Hawaii and Australia. What he can’t use he is donating to charity.

An online fundraiser via a GoFundMe account to help Ken Gemmell and his daughter, Arabelle, had more raised more than $490,000 by Thursday afternoon.

Recounting the day is tough, Gemmell said, and something he tries not to do.

“There is nothing good coming from it. Nothing will change what happened,” he told the news source.

After the plane crashed, Gemmell said calls started coming in to his phone and he scrambled to get home. He said he knew it was his house on fire. He hadn’t heard from Marie in more than 50 minutes. He kept trying her cell phone.

“I was hoping for the best trying to figure where else she could be,” Gemmell told MyMCMedia.

It took three hours after he arrived on scene until he got the word his family died in the accident.

“Waiting three hours was tough to take to get the answer we didn’t want to hear,” Gemmell said.

»Read more about this story at MyMCMedia.org.

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