5 Dead, Including Child, in Jet Crash at Rural Virginia Airport

Incident comes less than a week after a small plane crash near an interstate highway in Tennessee killed a Canadian family of five.

An emergency crew works at the site of a plane crash in Hot Springs, Va., on March 10, 2024. Austin Hall/The Recorder via Reuters

A small private jet crashed into woods in Virginia and burned on March 10, killing all five people on board, police said.

It was the second, five-fatality incident within a week, following a small plane crash in Tennessee on March 5.

On March 10, a twin-engine IAI Astra 1125 crashed near Ingalls Field Airport in Hot Springs, Virginia, around 3 p.m., Virginia State Police said in a statement.

The plane was short on its approach to the runway and burst into flames after crashing into a hillside.

The five dead included the pilot, first officer, and three passengers—a man, a woman, and a young boy, likely aged 5 to 7 years old, according to the state police. Their remains were sent to the Virginia Office of the Medical Examiner for identification.

The plane had taken off from Fort Lauderdale in south Florida. The passengers were set to attend an event at the nearby Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, the plane owner’s attorney and family friend told WSLS, a local NBC affiliate.

Jeff Ford, chairman of the Bath County Airport Authority, told WSLS that an onboard emergency prompted the attempted landing at Ingalls. The airport is now closed.

The state police are working with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to investigate. The NTSB will lead the inquiry and issue updates, the FAA said.

The NTSB said it doesn’t speculate about the cause of incidents during an investigation’s on-scene phase.

A preliminary report is expected within 30 days with a final report taking one to two years.

5 Killed in Nashville Plane Crash

On March 5, a single-engine plane crashed near a highway in Nashville, Tennessee, just a few miles short of the airport it had tried to reach for an emergency landing. Five people aboard—all members of a Canadian family—were killed.

The pilot was Victor Dotsenko, 43, from King Township, 31 miles north of Toronto. Mr. Dotsenko’s wife Rimma, 39, and their three children, David, 12, Adam, 10, and Emma, 7, also died, according to CBC News.

Mr. Dotsenko made an emergency call to John C. Tune Airport around 7:40 p.m., saying he had engine trouble. He was cleared for an emergency landing, the Metro Nashville Police Department said.  A short time later, he radioed that the aircraft would not make it to the runway.

The plane burst into flames when it crashed in a grassy median just off Interstate 40 and behind a Costco on the city’s west side. The crash scene was about three miles south of the general aviation airport.

Authorities were working to determine where the plane, which was based at Brampton Flight Centre, near Toronto, Ontario, originated.

There were no injuries to drivers on the interstate, the Nashville Fire Department said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.