Agencies continue work to identify plane crash victims, events leading to crash
Jun. 21—EBENSBURG, Pa. — The victims of a fatal airplane crash Sunday near Ebensburg have been identified as two men from Cambria County who were traveling from Ebensburg Airport to Ocean City, Maryland, said county Coroner Jeffrey Lees.
However, Lees said their identities remain presumptive until DNA testing provides confirmation.
As Lees continues the DNA test processes, accident reconstruction is being handled by The National Transportation Safety Board.
The NTSB on Wednesday will continue extracting remains of the PA-30 airplane from a densely wooded area in Cambria Township just beyond an open field along Rorabaugh Road.
Lees said he will also be at the site on Wednesday, collecting human remains that will not only aid his investigation but also provide closure for the victims' families.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates civil aviation in the United States, has reports of seven accidents involving aircraft flying to or from the Ebensburg Airport in the past 40 years.
None of those previous accidents resulted in fatal injuries.
And all of those accidents involved minor or no injuries except for one: In 2017, in an injury listed as "serious," according to the FAA, was reported in connection to an accident caused by engine problems that took a twin- engine airplane down in a wooded stretch of Cambria Township, near Beulah Road after a failed landing attempt at the Ebensburg Airport.
A Tribune-Democrat article about that past accident reported the pilot suffered a head injury.
Aside from that instance in 2017, the six other accidents over the past 40 years were logged in 1999, 1994, 1988, 1987, 1985 and 1983.
The number of flights at the Ebensburg Airport per day vary, said Bill Grady, treasurer of The Regional Aviation Conservation Recreation Authority (RACRA).
He said there can be fewer than 10 flights from the airport during winter months to 20 or more flights in summer months.
The airport has been owned and operated by Ebensburg Borough until, more than 15 years ago, the borough council allowed RACRA, a nonprofit lead by a group of pilots, to operate it, Grady said.
While admittedly not a historian of the airport, Grady said it dates back at least to the days of air mail service in the 1930s.
Nowadays, pilots take off from the Ebensburg Airport for various reasons — to travel to individual aviation-related jobs in other areas, to conduct pilot training sessions and to fly for pleasure, Grady said.
Flights have continued in the wake of the Sunday crash, he said, underscoring both the tragedy of the accident as well as the general safety of flying.
"Everyone who flies is well-trained," he said. "You have to go through a lot of hoops to learn how to fly. It's not as easy as getting in a car."
In an emergency situation, Grady said, pilots know how to land as safely as possible on a highway or an open field such as the one near the site of the Sunday crash. Both occupants were pronounced dead at the scene.
"We don't know what happened," Grady said. "The weather was good, but they are determining if there was any fog at higher altitudes."
The NTSB is investigating by recovering the plane and moving it to a site to analyze, he said.
Lees said it would be several weeks before DNA test results return a positive identification of the plane's occupants.
