Virginia State Police identified the six victims Saturday morning.
Pilot: William C. Hamerstadt, 64, of Carmel, Ind.
Passengers:
Robert D. Ross, 73, of Louisville, Ky. (owner of the plane)
Lisa K. Borinstein, 52, of Shelbyville, Ind.
Luke J. Borinstein, 19, of Shelbyville, Ind.
Emma R. Borinstein, 15, of Shelbyville, Ind.
Maren Timmermann, 15, of Berlin, Germany
The plane - a 1969 Beech 95-B55 twin-engine, fixed-wing - left Louisville, Ky., on Friday morning, stopped in Shelbyville, Ind., and was headed to Shannon Airport as its final destination.
The official time of the crash was 12:24 p.m.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Original Story
Six people died in a fiery plane crash at Shannon Airport in Spotsylvania County on Friday afternoon.
At about 12:30 p.m., the twin-engine plane attempted to land, but aborted that attempt and tried to ascend again before banking to the left and crashing in a tree line near the CSX train tracks, where it immediately caught fire, according to the Virginia State Police.
Six bodies were recovered from the burnt wreckage of the plane, according to state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller. The remains will be transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond for positive identification. Authorities said they will not identify the victims until all next of kin are notified. All six are from out-of-state.
Local, state and federal authorities are investigating the cause of the crash.
Following the crash, smoke and emergency vehicles were visible from the runway. Passengers on nearby trains posted photos of the fire on social media.
Shari Acree, 35, a passenger on the Amtrak Carolinian from Washington, D.C., to Raleigh, N.C., on Friday afternoon, saw the wreckage.
“First, I saw white smoke, then the crash itself. The plane was completely decimated and there was still some flame coming from it,” said Acree, a Maryland resident whose train had just left the Fredericksburg station when it began slowing down and then stopped.
The train stopped for about 20 minutes, she said.
As of Friday evening, police were still trying to determine where the plane was coming from and it's destination. Friday’s crash happened exactly three years after the last crash at the airport.
On Aug. 12, 2013, a 33-year-old pilot made an emergency landing near Shannon Airport. Jerome Matthew Orlando was not injured in the incident.
In July 2013, Edwin G. Hassel, 22, died in a crash at Shannon Airport. An investigation concluded that Hassel intentionally crashed the Cessna 172M he had rented.
In September 2012, a father and son died in a plane crash near Shannon Airport. Stafford County residents John Morton Jr., 48, and his 13-year-old son, Kyle, died in the crash.
Pilot: William C. Hamerstadt, 64, of Carmel, Ind.
Passengers:
Robert D. Ross, 73, of Louisville, Ky. (owner of the plane)
Lisa K. Borinstein, 52, of Shelbyville, Ind.
Luke J. Borinstein, 19, of Shelbyville, Ind.
Emma R. Borinstein, 15, of Shelbyville, Ind.
Maren Timmermann, 15, of Berlin, Germany
The plane - a 1969 Beech 95-B55 twin-engine, fixed-wing - left Louisville, Ky., on Friday morning, stopped in Shelbyville, Ind., and was headed to Shannon Airport as its final destination.
The official time of the crash was 12:24 p.m.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Original Story
Six people died in a fiery plane crash at Shannon Airport in Spotsylvania County on Friday afternoon.
At about 12:30 p.m., the twin-engine plane attempted to land, but aborted that attempt and tried to ascend again before banking to the left and crashing in a tree line near the CSX train tracks, where it immediately caught fire, according to the Virginia State Police.
Six bodies were recovered from the burnt wreckage of the plane, according to state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller. The remains will be transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond for positive identification. Authorities said they will not identify the victims until all next of kin are notified. All six are from out-of-state.
Local, state and federal authorities are investigating the cause of the crash.
Following the crash, smoke and emergency vehicles were visible from the runway. Passengers on nearby trains posted photos of the fire on social media.
Shari Acree, 35, a passenger on the Amtrak Carolinian from Washington, D.C., to Raleigh, N.C., on Friday afternoon, saw the wreckage.
“First, I saw white smoke, then the crash itself. The plane was completely decimated and there was still some flame coming from it,” said Acree, a Maryland resident whose train had just left the Fredericksburg station when it began slowing down and then stopped.
The train stopped for about 20 minutes, she said.
As of Friday evening, police were still trying to determine where the plane was coming from and it's destination. Friday’s crash happened exactly three years after the last crash at the airport.
On Aug. 12, 2013, a 33-year-old pilot made an emergency landing near Shannon Airport. Jerome Matthew Orlando was not injured in the incident.
In July 2013, Edwin G. Hassel, 22, died in a crash at Shannon Airport. An investigation concluded that Hassel intentionally crashed the Cessna 172M he had rented.
In September 2012, a father and son died in a plane crash near Shannon Airport. Stafford County residents John Morton Jr., 48, and his 13-year-old son, Kyle, died in the crash.