‘Ma’am, ma’am, straighten up, straighten up’: Air traffic controller’s tragic last words to woman piloting a plane with her husband and his brother before she crashed and killed all three
- Pilot Dana Gray, 46, died along with her husband Tony, 52, and his brother Jerry, 27, in a plane crash near Houston
- Violent crash Thursday was caught on a hardware store security camera, showing the plane nosediving into a car
- Audio recording of pilot’s communication with air traffic controller shows she made three attempts to land the plane
- Eerie audio has a traffic controller telling Gray just before the crash: ‘Ma’am, ma’am, straighten up, straighten up’
- WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE
The pilot of a plane that crashed near a Houston airport halted a third attempt to land just before it plummeted to the ground, killing the female pilot, her husband, and his brother.
Audio showed that the pilot, identified as Dana Gray, 46, was told at least twice to turn around and make another attempt to land. She was also told that she was she’s flying too high and has to turn around to land at Hobby Airport.
The pilot can be heard nervously laughing as she says, ‘Trying to get down again.’ An air traffic controller says ‘no problem.’
Just before the crash, a traffic controller says: ‘Ma’am, ma’am, straighten up, straighten up.’
Gray, her husband Tony, 52, both racing enthusiasts, and Tony’s brother Jerry, 27, all died in what National Transportation Safety Board investigator Tom Latson described as a ‘violent impact’ that was caught on a hardware store security camera.
The gruesome footage shows the small plane nosediving into a parked car.
https://youtu.be/1Bmj8AZ3vH4
Dana Gray, 46, her husband Tony, 52, and his brother Jerry, 27, all died in a violent crash that was caught on a hardware store security camera
The video shot near a Houston airport on Thursday shows the plane suddenly striking a parked car in the parking lot of a hardware store
Moments before the crash, an air traffic controller told Gray: ‘Ma’am, ma’am, straighten up, straighten up,’ audio recordings show
https://youtu.be/q7yIe3lM4_A
It’s unclear whether the pilot made a distress call just before the crash that happened Thursday afternoon near Hobby Airport, Latson said.
He said that initial information indicates Gray didn’t make any other calls to air traffic controllers after she waved off the third landing attempt.
‘During this [third] approach, the pilot decided they would make a go-around themselves without direction and announced they were going around and began climbing out to the north,’ he said, adding that pilots are allowed to wave off an approach if they are not comfortable with it.
Moore, Oklahoma, Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis told KOCO-TV that Gray was a ‘very, very safe pilot.’
The plane took off from Norman, Oklahoma, and had just been refueled, meaning it had about five hours’ worth of fuel, Latson said, though he noted that it isn’t clear whether the plane could have run out of fuel because both tanks ruptured in the crash.
The NTSB is still trying to determine how much flying experience the pilot had, Latson said, but that she had been flying the plane since the Oklahoma company that owns it bought it in 2012. She and her husband have two sons: Jared, 21, and Blaze, 24.
The victims of the Houston plane crash were identified as Tony Gray and his wife Dana (pictured together left) and his brother Jerry (right)
A small plane that crashed into a car in a parking lot near a Houston airport, killing three people aboard the aircraft, is roped off on Thursday
Dustin Bowman paid tribute to the victims on Facebook, writing: ‘It’s hard knowing I’ll never get to nag Tony for business or racing advice again, but I’ll always remember the advice he has given me.’
‘As this racing community grieves over this, we shall remember that this life on earth is a short stint and a blink of a eye compared to the eternity we will spend with our father above. Tony, Dana, and Jerry are now there waiting on the rest of us.’
‘We will all be trying our hardest to hold back the tears but we will eventually raise up the cheers to celebrate these three people’s lives and all the joy they’ve brought us all for the time they were with us.’
A post on the Facebook page for Thunder Valley Raceway Park paid tribute to the Gray family on Thursday. It said: ‘We have no words to describe the loss to the TVRP family, as the Gray family have been long time racers, sponsors, and friends at the track.
Tony and Dana Gray (pictured), of Moore, Oklahoma, were racing enthusiasts. They died along with Tony’s brother Jerry, who was 27
Dana Gray is pictured with her son Jared, 21, in a plane. He captioned the picture on Facebook: ‘Flew to Arkansas with my momma today’
The aircraft had been trying to land at Hobby Airport, in the southeastern part of the city, when it crashed less than a mile northwest of the airport
The NTSB is still trying to determine how much flying experience the pilot had. She had been flying the plane since the Oklahoma company that owns it bought it in 2012
Police and fire officials investigate the scene where a small plane crashed into a car in a parking lot near a Houston airport
The flight-tracking website FlightAware showed that in the last 15 minutes, the plane’s altitude greatly fluctuated, going from 1,800 feet down to 200 feet and back up to 1,200 feet before crashing
Records in the Federal Aviation Administration registry show the plane was registered to Safe Aviation LLC in Moore, Oklahoma, and had been manufactured in 2012. Officials with Safe Aviation could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday, and a phone listing for the company could not be found.
The flight-tracking website FlightAware showed that in the last 15 minutes, the plane’s altitude greatly fluctuated, going from 1,800 feet down to 200 feet and back up to 1,200 feet before crashing.
NTSB’s final report on the crash will take six months to a year, Latson said.
Also on Thursday, a plane crash in North Dakota killed three people when a four-seat Piper PA-28 plane being flown by a 20-year-old crashed into a lake.
The 20-year-old pilot, Colbie Fandrich, died along with 38-year-old Christine Fandrich and her 10-year-old son, Aaron Nordstrom.
Television news footage showed the plane narrowly missed hitting a couple of propane tanks in the parking lot
Gray, her husband Tony, 52, both racing enthusiasts, and Tony’s brother Jerry, 27, all died in what was described as a ‘violent impact’
[divider]
THIRD deadly plane crash in two days: Small aircraft crashes into Los Angeles town house killing two
Two people were killed Friday after a small plane they were in crashed into a town house in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, authorities said.
A Los Angeles County fire dispatcher said nobody on the ground was hurt.
The plane appeared to have smashed into the front of an attached, two-story town house in a complex and sparked a fire. The burned wreckage of the plane was in the patio area.
Firefighters work the scene where a small plane crashed into a multifamily building in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, California Friday afternoon Early reports indicated two people aboard the plane died
Investigators survey the scene where a small plane crashed into a town house, Friday. Fire officials said two people in the plane were killed in the crash. Nobody on the ground appeared to have been hurt
An investigator surveys the scene where a small plane crashed into a town house, Friday
A police officer looks at the wreckage of a small plane where it crashed into a town house. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash
The plane appeared to have smashed into the front of an attached, two-story town house in a complex and sparked a fire. The burned wreckage of the plane was in the patio area
Antwahn Nance told KNBC-TV he heard the engine sputtering as the plane flew at a low altitude. He said he rushed to the town house when he heard the crash, but when he got closer the plane was engulfed in flames.
‘Everybody was outside their apartments and tried to offer assistance, but there was nothing anybody could do. It was too hot,’ Nance said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer says two people were aboard the Grumman American AA-1B.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash.
The area is just west of Hawthorne Municipal Airport.
The incident follows two deadly crashes involving small planes in North Dakota and Texas on Thursday.
A plane crash near Houston killed pilot Dana Gray, 46, her husband Tony, 52, and Tony’s brother Jerry, 27.
Also on Thursday, a plane crash in North Dakota killed three people when a four-seat plane being flown by a 20-year-old crashed into a lake.
The 20-year-old pilot, Colbie Fandrich, died along with 38-year-old Christine Fandrich and her 10-year-old son, Aaron Nordstrom.
https://youtu.be/q7yIe3lM4_A
