Nashville police identified the five victims of a fatal small plane crash earlier this week as the pilot, his wife and their three young children.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department says Victor Dotsenko, 43, his wife, Rimma, 39, and their children, David, 12, Adam, 10, and Emma, 7, died in the crash. occurred on Interstate 40 on Monday. The family is from King Township in Ontario, Canada.
“On behalf of King Township, I extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the Dotsenko family in our community who tragically lost their lives in the small plane crash in Nashville, Tennessee,” said Mayor Steve Pellegrini. , in a post on X. “This is a heartbreaking and devastating loss for our tight-knit community.”
Audio recordings that emerged after the crash captured Victor Dotsenko telling an air traffic controller, “I'm going to land, I don't know where,” moments before impact.
NASHVILLE PLANE CRASH: AUDIO RECORDINGS REVEAL PILOT'S FINAL MOMENTS
Investigators are watching a small plane crash along eastbound Interstate 40 at mile marker 202 on Tuesday, March 5, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP/George Walker IV)
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating what caused the aircraft, called in radio recordings the Piper PA-32R, to fall from the sky Monday night.
Metro Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said the John C. Tune Airport control tower received a message around 7:40 p.m. from a plane reporting it was experiencing an engine and power failure. and that he needed emergency approval to land.
“Nashville, I'm declaring an emergency. My engine shut down,” Dotsenko could be heard saying in an audio recording obtained by WYMT.
5 PEOPLE KILLED IN SINGLE-ENGINE PLANE CRASH IN NASHVILLE, OFFICIALS SAY
The plane crashed about three miles from John C. Tune Airport in Nashville. (Metropolitan Nashville Police Department)
“Are you trying to land on John Tune?” the air traffic controller asked.
“My engine went out. I'm at 1,600. I'm going to land I don't know where,” the pilot responded.
In the recordings, Dotsenko also said he had the airport runway in sight, but declared: “I'm too far away, I won't make it.”
The single-engine plane eventually crashed near mile marker 202 along eastbound Interstate 40 in West Nashville, a neighborhood about three miles from the airport.
The family that died in the plane crash was from Ontario, Canada. (AP/George Walker IV)
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The flight originated in Ontario and made stops along the way that would likely refuel, including in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Mount Sterling, Kentucky, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Aaron McCarter said Tuesday. Before the pilot radioed the emergency, the plane had been on a normal flight path with no reported mechanical irregularities while flying from the Kentucky airport, McCarter added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
