(RightWing.org) – A Canadian family of five has died in a Tennessee plane crash. Their single-engine light aircraft came down outside Nashville after declaring an emergency. The victims were the pilot, his wife, and their three young children.
Around 7:40 p.m. on March 4, the control tower at Nashville’s John C Tune Airport received a message from a light aircraft, reporting engine and power failure. The pilot declared an emergency and asked for immediate landing clearance. The plane was already down to 1,600 feet as controllers tried to guide it to the runway.
The pilot then said he had the runway in sight but wasn’t going to make it, before turning around and heading for a grassy area beside Interstate 40. The plane, identified as a Piper PA-32R Lance II, crashed and exploded near Mile Marker 203, around three miles south of the airport and close to a Costco store. There was no damage or casualties on the ground but the interstate was closed through Monday night.
Nashville police have now identified the victims as 43-year-old Victor Dotsenko, who was flying the plane. His wife Rimma (39) and their children David (12), Adam (10), and Emma (7). They were from King Township, Ontario, and had flown from Ontario with multiple refueling stops along the way. Their last stop was at Mount Sterling, Kentucky around 25 minutes before the crash.
The mayor of King Township has released a statement offering condolences to “the families and friends of the Dotsenk family” and called it a “heartbreaking and devastating loss” for the town. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are currently investigating the cause of the crash.
Piper Aircraft built 1,207 PA-32s, including the Lance, Lance II, and Saratoga models, between 1975 and 2009. Two previous high-profile accidents involving the aircraft, the deaths of John F Kennedy Jr in 1999 and GOP technology consultant Michael Connell in 2008, were caused by pilot error and weather conditions respectively.
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