Two weeks ago, neighbors of Troy Brothers attended a party celebrating the 19-year-olds pending departure to the U.S. Naval Academy.
Those same neighbors stood stunned Friday evening on their quiet street in Fraser, reeling from the news that Brothers, his mother, his stepfather and his brother-in-law died earlier that day in a plane crash at Oakland County International Airport in Waterford.
It was the airports worst tragedy in terms of the number of fatalities in more than 40 years, officials said.
Its awful to lose friends like that, so suddenly and so finally. Its unbelievable, said Mike Packard, 75, who lives across the street from Brothers, his mother, Sandra Haley, 53, and his stepfather, James Haley, 58. The fourth victim was Jamie Jose, a 34-year-old Northfield Township firefighter who lived in South Lyon.
Aviation officials are investigating the cause of the crash involving the single-engine Cessna 172 piloted by Brothers. A recording of radio traffic from the airports control tower indicates that the plane may have been overweight.
The crash happened about 1:40 p.m., said J. David VanderVeen, director of central services for Oakland County. He said the four-seat aircraft took off using Runway 9 Left, the shorter of the airports two parallel runways, and reached an altitude of about 100 feet when the pilot radioed the tower asking for permission to turn around. The plane crashed in a field beyond the end of the runway and burst into flames.
He impacted, and then the airplane flipped, VanderVeen said. Our sympathies and condolences certainly go out to the next of kin. This is very tragic.
In a recording of communication between the plane and an air traffic controller posted on the website www.liveatc.net, a man can be heard saying: Were a little overweight. Were going to have to come back and land on this. Lynn Lunsford, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, confirmed the authenticity of the recording.
The men died at the scene, VanderVeen said. Sandra Haley died at a hospital.
FAA records show the plane was manufactured in 1975, and its registered owner is Flight 101 LLC. There is a Flight 101 flight school at the airport; a man there declined to comment Friday afternoon when asked about the crash.
Bill Mullan, an Oakland County spokesman, said Brothers was a licensed pilot.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating. The NTSB is leading the investigation, Lunsford said.
These types of investigations are very methodical and could take several months to a year, he said.
Sharon Najor, who lives near the home where Brothers lived with his mother and stepfather, said Brothers family members were thrilled about his acceptance to the Naval Academy. The family hosted a going-away party for him June 8, she said.
It was friends and family and drinks, she said. We had a ball.
Najor said Brothers studied at Western Michigan University, got excellent grades and was polite.
I cant even believe this, Najor said, shaking her head.
VanderVeen said the crash involved the most number of fatalities in a single incident since the county took over the airport in 1967.
The last fatal crash at the airport occurred in 2006 and killed two people. Since then, the airport has had 1.1 million flights with no incidents, VanderVeen said.
Its a successful, safe airport, VanderVeen said.
He said that Oakland International, which handles private and corporate flights, is the second-busiest airport in Michigan.
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