Embraer Jet Crashes In A DC Suburb Killing All Onboard And Three On The Ground

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Embraer Jet Crashes In A DC Suburb Killing All Onboard And Three On The Ground

December 9, 2014 - On Monday, a Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100 jet, N100EQ, crashed into a home located in a Washington, D.C., suburb killing all three onboard and killing a mother and two of her children on the ground.

At about 9:30 AM, the Embraer EMB-500 departed Horace Williams Airport, Chapel Hill, North Carolina for Gaithersburg Montgomery County Airport, Maryland. At about 10:45 AM, air traffic control cleared the pilot for a GPS approach for runway 14.

Witnesses reported the aircraft appeared to be to low for the approach and other witness reported seeing a flock of birds earlier. The Embraer crashed less than a mile from the airport into a two story, wood frame home (in the 19700 block of Drop Forge Lane) killing a mother and her two children.

The family members killed have been identified as 36 year old Marie Gemmell and her two sons, 3 year old Cole and a 1 month old Devon. Gaithersburg's Police Capt. Paul Starks said the mother and child were found in the bathroom on the second floor with the mother on top of her young sons in an apparent effort to shield them from the smoke and fire. Her husband and her school aged daughter were not home at the time.

Robert Sumwalt of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the Embraer EMB-500 left a gash in the roof of one house while the tail and fuselage slammed into another. One of the wings “catapulted” into the third home.

The pilot has been identified as Dr. Michael J. Rosenberg, the other two passengers onboard have identified as David Hartman, 52, of Durham, and Chiji Ogbuka, 31, of Raleigh. Rosenberg was up until his death the CEO of Health Decisions, a biotech company based in Durham, North Caroline. It has been reported that Rosenberg had been in another airplane accident back on March 1, 2010, although people who knew him reported he was an experienced pilot.

Health Decisions Vice President of Clinical Affairs Patrick Phillips said “Everyone at Health Decisions is devastated by the loss of our friend and colleague Michael Rosenberg. The thoughts of the management and employees of Health Decisions go out to Dr. Rosenberg’s family as well as to the families of the other passengers."