Pilot errors are what caused a jet to crash into a Gaithersburg home, killing the mother and her two young children inside, a report from the National Transportation Safety Board found Tuesday.
Firefighters stand outside a house where a small private jet crashed in Gaithersburg, Md., Monday, Dec. 8, 2014. A woman and her two young sons inside the home and three people on the aircraft were killed, authorities said.
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Montgomery County, Md., firefighters stand outside a house where a small private jet crashed in Gaithersburg, Md., Monday, Dec. 8, 2014. A woman and her two young sons inside the home and three people on the aircraft were killed, authorities said.
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The wreckage of a small private jet sits in a driveway after crashing into a neighboring house in Gaithersburg, Md., Monday, Dec. 8, 2014. A woman and her two young sons inside the home and three people aboard the aircraft were killed, authorities said.
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The window of a house is damaged after a small private jet crashed into a house in Gaithersburg, Md., Monday, Dec. 8, 2014. A woman and her two young sons inside the home and three people on the aircraft were killed, authorities said.
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
Wreckage from the plane crash lines in the yard of a home in the area of Drop Forge Lane near the Montgomery County Airpark on Dec. 8, 2014.
(WTOP/Bruce Alan)
WTOP/Bruce Alan
The wreckage of a small private jet sits in a driveway after crashing into a neighboring house in Gaithersburg, Md., Monday, Dec. 8, 2014. A woman and her two young sons inside the home and three people aboard the aircraft were killed, authorities said.
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
Montgomery County, Md. Fire and Rescue Chief Steve Lohr speaks to the media near where a small private jet crashed into a house in Gaithersburg, Md., Monday, Dec. 8, 2014. A woman and her two young sons inside the home and three people on the aircraft were killed, authorities said.
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
Utility workers and emergency personnel work near the site where a small plane crashed into a residential neighborhood December 8, 2014 in Gaithersburg, Md. The three occupants of the plane were killed in the crash, and investigators are searching for three people who are unaccounted for on the ground.
(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Neighbors of the Gemmell family light candles and hold vigil as they look at what’s left of the family home, destroyed after a plane crashed into it on Dec. 8, 2014. Mom Marie Gemmell and her two young children were killed.
(WTOP/Mike Murillo)
WTOP/Mike Murillo
Marie Gemmell with here children Cole and Devin. All three were killed in December 2014 when a plane crashed into their home in Gaithersburg, Md.
(Courtesy of Ken Gemmell)
WASHINGTON – Pilot errors caused a jet to crash into a Gaithersburg home more than a year ago, killing the mother and her two young children inside, a report from the National Transportation Safety Board found Tuesday.
The family’s father Ken Gemmell and an older daughter, Arabelle, were not home during the crash.
The pilot, Dr. Michael Rosenberg, 66, and two others on the plane, David Hartman, 52, and Chijioke Ogbuka, 31, also were killed in the crash. Rosenberg was founder and CEO of Health Decisions, a clinical research organization in Durham, North Carolina.
The plane had flown from Horace Williams Airport in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and was supposed to land at Montgomery County Airpark.
According to the NTSB report, Rosenberg failed to turn on crucial deicing equipment and skipped pre-flight checks, which led to the deadly jet crash.
The NTSB issued three recommendations Tuesday: Two focused on developing automated alerts for pilots of small jets to remind them that deicing equipment should be activated, and a third focused on training.
“Lives depend on pilots’ actions,” NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said. “Our own lives, the lives of our passengers, and the lives of people on the ground.”
There were signs the Rosenberg was rushing before takeoff and that he did not take enough time to do full pre-flight checks.
According to NTSB investigators, pilot miscalculations, the wrong flap settings, and the failure to activate deicing systems caused the plane travel more than 30 knots slower than it should have been.
By the time automated stall warnings sounded, it was too late.
Robert Sumwalt, a member of the NTSB, said that Rosenberg had been involved in a prior incident in March 2010 and said that in 2011 the pilot had violated temporary flight restrictions in restricted airspace. Sumwalt did not provide further details about the incidents during a hearing Tuesday.
Rosenberg had piloted a plane that crashed in Gaithersburg on March 1, 2010, WTOP has reported.
Investigators said the airpark was not to blame for the crash but said air traffic controllers should have communicated two reports of icing in the area to pilots prior to the crash.
