At 2:58 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, 2024, a 911 call came into the Bath County Sheriff’s Office in western Virginia. A jet had gone down near Ingalls Field Airport in Hot Springs. Deputies, state police and Hot Springs Fire and Rescue were sent out. All five people on board died at the scene.
The aircraft was a twin-engine IAI Astra 1125, which police described as a private jet. According to the Virginia State Police, the dead were the pilot and three other adults, plus a child. Hot Springs is a small community tucked against the Allegheny Mountains, close to the West Virginia line.
What police say happened
The jet had left Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Early reports differed on whether it was meant to land at Ingalls Field at all. Police told a Roanoke television station, WDBJ, that the plane was not scheduled to touch down there and was trying to make an emergency landing when it came up short. Later, the state police and the Associated Press described Ingalls Field as the planned destination.
Police were clear about how the end came. “The plane was short on its approach to the runway, struck the trees and then the hillside,” they said. A brush fire followed and was put out quickly. The airport closed afterward.
The fire left little behind. “Small crash site, everything is burnt, meaning the tail numbers are unidentifiable,” state police Sgt. Rick Garletts said Sunday evening, adding that troopers were working with federal agencies to pin down the flight details and who had been aboard.
Who was aboard
The owner’s attorney, a family friend, told police the passengers were going to an event at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs. On March 22, police named everyone on the plane. The pilot was Claudio Jose Alberto Colmenares Perez and the first officer was Gagan Gupasandra Srinivas Reddy. The passengers were Alfredo Diez, Kseniia Shanina and their son, Nicholas Diez. Ages and hometowns were withheld.
The victims’ bodies went to the Virginia Office of the Medical Examiner so they could be formally identified.
The investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board is in charge, with the Federal Aviation Administration assisting. The FAA offered no early word on the circumstances. A preliminary entry it posted online said only that the aircraft was destroyed and that a fire started during the approach, cause unknown.
In plain terms, here is what to expect. The NTSB is expected to issue a preliminary report within 30 days covering the first phase of its work. A final report naming a probable cause is expected to take one to two years. Until then, nobody can say what brought the jet down short of the runway.
Sources
- 5 people, including a juvenile, killed in Virginia plane crash, officials say (CNN)
- Crash of small private jet in rural Virginia kills all 5 on board, authorities say (CBS News)
- 4 adults, 1 juvenile killed in twin-engine plane crash near Virginia airport: Police (ABC News)
- Virginia police identify 5 killed in small private jet crash near rural airport (The Associated Press)
