Mom Died Holding Two Sons When Plane Crashed into Home
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Monkey Business Images/Thinkstock(GAITHERSBURG, Md.) — A Maryland mom’s final act was trying to protect her sons with her own body after a private jet crashed into their home and erupted into flames, officials said.
The bodies of Marie Gemmell, 36, and her infant and her 3-year-old sons were found in the family’s second-floor bathroom in Gaithersburg, Maryland, after the crash Monday.
“The way they found them, it looked like she was trying to shelter them from the smoke and fire,” Montgomery County Police Capt. Paul Starks told ABC News Tuesday.
“You think you’re safe in your house,” he said. “You have a baby six weeks ago and you’re staying home. … Unbelievable.”
Gemmell’s husband, Ken Gemmell, and their oldest child, who’s five, weren’t home when the jet crashed, authorities said.
The plane was heading to the Montgomery County Airpark a mile away when it crashed and exploded into pieces, officials said. One of the wings, which had fuel inside, catapulted into the Gemmells’ home, erupting into flames.
Two other homes were also damaged.
All three people aboard the jet, coming from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, were killed. Dr. Michael Rosenberg, founder and CEO of a clinical research organization in North Carolina, is among the victims, according to a statement from Health Decisions. Authorities have not released the names of the other two victims.
A GoFundMe page for the Gemmell family has raised nearly $100,000, and supporters flooded Ken Gemmell’s Facebook page.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash and has recovered the jet’s data recorders.
“Our mission is to find out not only what happened but why it happened, because we want to make sure something like this never happens again,” the NTSB’s Robert Sumwalt said at a news conference Monday.
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