CHAMBLEE, Ga. — Four people killed in a plane crash at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport over the weekend have been identified.
Channel 2 Action News was able to confirm the identity of the plane’s pilot and owner on Sunday. Jonathan Rosen, 47, was reportedly flying his daughter, another child and a family friend from Atlanta to Houston Friday afternoon. None of them survived the crash.
His daughter has been identified as Allison Rosen. The other victims onboard were Lauren Harrington, 42, and Julia Smith, 13. It’s unclear if the other two passengers were related.
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NTSB investigators held a briefing Sunday afternoon and they were able to confirm that the small, Cessna 210 aircraft crashed on takeoff. The plane had been recently modified via an engine swap and extra fuel onboard contributed to the intense fire after the crash.
Channel 2 Action News reporter Steve Gehlbach said investigators removed the charred wreckage of the plane onto a truck Sunday morning. Gehlbach spoke to Daniel Boggs of the NTSB who described what happened.
“(The plane) was on takeoff, 75 feet up in the air and nosed over,” Boggs said.
Boggs said NTSB investigators have already talked to witnesses and are looking at video from nearby businesses that captured the crash. He said the plane did not have a black box to record the flight data or a voice recorder and that investigators will be looking at everything from maintenance records to communications with the control tower.
“We’ll be looking at the weight of the aircraft, looking at the engine, looking at the servicing, qualifications of the pilot,” Boggs said. “We will look at all the parameters.”
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Rosen was the CEO of Entaire Global Companies and also the chairman of the Jonathan Rosen Foundation which taught financial literacy to children. He was described by family and people that knew him as a “larger than life personality” and someone who impacted and inspired many young lives.
The DeKalb County School District released a statement confirming one of their own, Allison Rosen, had died in the crash. It read:
The entire DeKalb County School District community, and especially the Peachtree Middle School family, mourns the passing of an eighth-grade student and her father. Our hearts and prayers will be with the family during this difficult time. Grief counselors will be made available to students and staff members at Peachtree during this time.
According to his family, Rosen was an accomplished pilot who helped build the modified jet powered propeller on the plane. Investigators said the plane’s original engine was a turbine.
NTSB investigators said the modification added another fuel tank to the plane. They believe it contributed to the intensity of the fire.
“It (the modification) was recently done,” Boggs said. “This is a newer aircraft, newer to this pilot.”
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Investigators told Gehlbach the initial ground investigation will take another two to three days to complete and the preliminary report will be filed in about two weeks. The NTSB said the full investigative report could take over a year to complete.
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