Nashville police have identified the five victims of a fatal small plane crash earlier this week as the pilot, his wife and their three young children.
The Nashville Metropolitan Police Department said Monday’s crash on Interstate 40 killed Victor Dotsenko, 43, his wife Rinma, 39, and their children David, 12. It was announced that Adam (10 years old) and Emma (7 years old) had died. The family is from King Township, Ontario, Canada.
“On behalf of King Township, I would like to express my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the Dotsenko family from our community who tragically lost their lives in a small plane crash in Nashville, Tennessee,” Mayor Steve Pellegrini said in a statement. I would like to express my condolences.” “This is a heartbreaking and devastating loss to our close-knit community.”
Audio recordings released after the crash showed Viktor Dotsenko telling air traffic controllers just before impact: “We’re going to land, we don’t know where.”
Nashville plane crash: Audio recording reveals pilot’s final moments
Investigators look on after a small plane crash occurred along eastbound Interstate 40 at mile marker 202 in Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday, March 5. (AP/George Walker IV)
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are currently investigating what caused the plane, referred to in radio recordings as a Piper PA-32R, to crash from the sky Monday night.
Nashville Metro Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said that around 7:40 p.m., the control tower at John C. He said he received a message that it was needed.
“Nashville, we declare a state of emergency. Engines have stopped,” Dotsenko can be heard saying in an audio recording obtained by MT.
Five people killed in single-engine plane crash in Nashville, officials say
The plane crashed about three miles from Nashville’s John C. Thune Airport. (Nashville Metro Police Department)
“Are you trying to land on John Thune?” the air traffic controller asked.
The pilot replied, “The engine has stopped. We are currently at an altitude of 1,600 degrees. We are about to land, but we don’t know where.”
In the recording, Dotsenko said he could see the airport runway, but declared: “It’s too far. We can’t get there.”
The single-engine plane ultimately crashed near mile marker 202 on Interstate 40 eastbound in west Nashville, about three miles from the airport.
The family who died in the plane crash was from Ontario, Canada. (AP/George Walker IV)
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Aaron McCarter, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said Tuesday that the flight departed from Ontario and stopped at possible gas stations along the way, including Erie, Pennsylvania, and Mount Sterling, Kentucky. McCarter added that the plane was on a normal flight trajectory with no mechanical abnormalities reported during the flight from the Kentucky airport until the pilot radioed the emergency.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
