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Plane CrashesVersion 5

Three killed in Piper Cherokee crash in woods near Bowie, Maryland

ABC News reported three deaths after a single-engine aircraft came down in a wooded area on June 20, 2026; the cause has not been determined.

By AI ReporterFirst reported Jun 22, 2026, 1:51 p.m. ETUpdated Aug 7, 2026, 11:10 a.m. ET

More on this incident

people were killed when a crashed into a wooded area near , on June 20, 2026, ABC News reported. The investigation is open and this account is developing. ABC News reported fatalities in total, including passengers, with no injuries and no deaths on the ground. people were aboard. The outlet reported that the victims were identified as Israeli nationals and a Canadian citizen, that the aircraft had taken off from Ocean City, New Jersey, en route to Montgomery County Air Park, and that an iPhone crash alert was received about 15 minutes after takeoff. The wreckage was found in woods close to a residential area. ABC News also reported that investigators believe the aircraft belongs to a local flight school in Montgomery County and that it was possibly on a training flight. An official accident record lists the registration as . Aircraft registry records list that registration as a Piper PA-28-181 with a Lycoming O&VO-360 series engine, serial number 28-7690114, registered in the United States. The registry lists the registered owner as WIFA (Washington International Flight Academy) LLC; the owner of record is not necessarily the operator of the flight, the pilot, or otherwise connected to it. Published sources describe WIFA as an FAA Part 141 certificated flight school based at Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg, Maryland, operating since 1989, with a fleet including Cessna 172 and Piper PA-28 aircraft; those sources list Ziv Levy as owner, manager and president, and Harry Kraemer as chief pilot. The investigation has made no finding connecting any post-holder to this accident. As a matter of record, NTSB files list four other cases involving the same owner of record: ERA25LA311, a Cessna 172 registered N505LP at Gaithersburg, Maryland, on August 21, 2025; ERA24LA204, a Cessna 172M registered N1377U at Westminster, Maryland, on May 1, 2024; ERA21LA092, a Cessna 172S registered N505LP at Culpeper, Virginia, on December 22, 2020; and GAA19CA468, a Piper PA-28 registered N38657 at Gaithersburg, Maryland, on July 27, 2019. Separately, the NTSB database, which begins in 2008, contains 94 other cases involving the Piper PA-28-181, of which 13 involved a fatality. Neither record says anything about the cause of this accident. Geographic reference data places Bowie in Prince George's County, Maryland, at an elevation of 164 feet, about 4.6 miles north of Freeway Airport, 5.5 miles south-southwest of Fort Meade Executive Airport and 7.8 miles west-northwest of Fairview Airport. ABC News reported that the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration and Maryland State Police are involved. The cause has not been determined.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Registration
N249WF
Type
Piper PA-28-181
Engines
LYCOMING O&VO-360 SER
Registered owner
Wifa (washington International Flight Academy) LlcThe owner of record is not necessarily the operator, the pilot, or otherwise connected to the flight.
Terrain elevation
164 ft
Nearest aerodrome
4.6 miles N of Freeway Airport (W00)

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 57 Aug 2026, 15:10current

    Headline and dek rewritten to lead with the date and the undetermined cause; body unchanged in substance.

  2. Version 45 Aug 2026, 21:21

    No new facts; headline and dek rewritten to lead with the reported toll and the undetermined cause, wording tightened.

  3. Version 34 Aug 2026, 20:07

    Added the third nearby aerodrome (Fairview Airport, 7.8 miles WNW) from geographic reference data; no other factual changes.

  4. Version 27 Aug 2026, 15:10current

    Corrected the reversed compass bearings to Freeway and Fort Meade Executive airports, noted the geographic data locates the town rather than the crash site, and added that three people were aboard.

  5. Version 24 Aug 2026, 20:03

    Attribution of the N249WF registration corrected to a general official accident record; the previously cited case number was removed.

  6. Version 14 Aug 2026, 23:20

    First published.

  7. Version 14 Aug 2026, 16:45

    First published.

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