Maryland State Police on Monday identified three young men who were fatally injured after their Piper PA-28 Cherokee crashed in the woods in Bowie, Maryland, on Saturday.
State police said the single-engine aircraft’s pilot was Yoav Bomrind, a 26-year-old Israeli national. The two passengers were David Rabinovitz, 19, of Israel and Elad Neidik, 20, of Canada. All were pronounced deceased by medical examiners who arrived on the scene early Sunday morning following a multihour search and rescue effort.
Per an FAA accident notification published Monday, the Piper Cherokee—an Archer II model—has registration N249WF. According to the agency’s records, that tail number is registered to Washington International Flight Academy (WIFA) of Gaithersburg, Maryland.
FlightAware history shows that the aircraft typically flies out of Montgomery County Air Park (KGAI) in Maryland, where WIFA is based, but on Saturday it was returning to Maryland from Ocean City Municipal Airport (26N) in New Jersey. State police believe Bomrind, Rabinovitz, and Neidik were using the aircraft for a training flight.
Officials said Sunday that police responded to an iPhone crash alert that was received by public safety personnel in Maryland’s Prince George’s County around 11:45 p.m. EDT on Saturday. Responders located the Cherokee around 3:45 a.m. EDT on Sunday, “in a wooded area in close proximity to a residential area” in the town of Bowie.
The FAA said Sunday that it and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating, with the NTSB taking the lead. Maryland State Police’s preliminary investigation determined that the aircraft crashed around 11:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday “for reasons unknown at this time.” No other injuries were reported.
The PA-28 is considered to have an excellent safety record and is among the most popular light aircraft families for training.