A single-engine plane crashed near a neighborhood late Saturday night in Bowie, Maryland, leaving three people dead, according to police.
The single-engine Piper Cherokee plane crashed at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday night with a pilot and two passengers on board, according to Elena Russo, with the Office of Media and Communications for the Maryland State Police. All three people on board were adults. Identification is being withheld pending next of kin notification, police said.
The plane was in route from Ocean City, New Jersey, to Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg late Saturday night, Russo said.
Prince George’s County Public Safety Communications received information at 11:53 p.m. Saturday night about an “iPhone crash alert” that indicated “a crash in the area of Rt. 50 and 301,” Russo said.
Multiple local agencies responded to the call and ground and aerial search for the aircraft immediately by members of the Prince George’s County Fire Department, Maryland State Police College Park Barrack, Anne Arundel County Police and Aviation, Bowie City Police and the Prince George’s County Police department.
The aircraft was located around 3:45 a.m., “in a wooden area in close proximity to a residential area off of Scarlet Oak Court,” Russo said.
“We don’t have any other information at this point from any eye witnesses or anybody that heard anything. The only thing we have is that iPhone crash alert,” she said.
The debris covers about 100 feet in a wooded area behind a fence that is “very close to a town home community behind a playground,” she said.
Police said that they believe that the plane belongs to a local flight school in Montgomery County and “was possibly participating in a training flight.”
They said that the location was near a public park area by the townhomes that was narrowly avoided by the plane.
“It’s absolutely a tragic incident that we are here investigating today. It could have been even worse because of the proximity of the crash was literally right next to a town home community in Bowie,” Russo said.
The investigation will be led by the NTSB and the FAA. The NTSB has dispatched someone from a local field office. They were expected to arrive Sunday morning.
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