Facebook
A campus community in Cleveland is mourning the loss of four students who died in a tragic plane crash Monday night.
The Cessna 172R - a four-seat, single-engine aircraft - crashed shortly after leaving Cuyahoga County Regional Airport outside Cleveland about 10 p.m.
The plane caught fire and trapped all four men inside.
'We are truly heartbroken about these promising lives cut short,' Case Western Reserve University President Barbara R. Snyder said in a statement, 'and feel profound sympathy for their loved ones and friends.'
Three of the occupants were on the school's wrestling team: freshman John Hill, 18, of St. Simons, Ga.; freshman Abraham Pishevar of Rockville, Md.; and Lucas Marcelli, 20, from Massillon, Ohio. The fourth, sophomore William Felten, 20, of Saginaw, Mich., was piloting the plane.
Felten and Marcelli belonged to fraternities on campus.
The university said grief counselors will be available to students who need them.
Mark Gerald, 45, was sitting on his front porch when he heard the plane struggling to stay in the air but could not see it until the fatal crash.
'We thought we had (a chance to help them). It was too hot,' he told Northeast Ohio Media Group. 'The whole fuselage was involved.'
Gerald and neighbors ran toward the scene to save the students but the plane exploded before they could get there.
Similarly, William Honaker, 18, was driving when he saw a 'ball of light' and quickly realized it was a plane engulfed in flames.
He too tried to approach the aircraft to help but other onlookers warned him to keep away from the intense fire.
'(The plane) was so mangled,' he said. 'I didn't want to look at it anymore, to be honest.'
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
With News Wire Services
mwalsh@nydailynews.com
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
0 comments "4 university students killed in Ohio plane crash"
Post a Comment