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Plane CrashesVersion 2

Three Killed in Piper Cherokee Crash in Woods Near Bowie, Maryland

ABC News reported three deaths in the June 20, 2026 crash; the National Transportation Safety Board, the FAA and Maryland State Police are investigating and 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

The aircraft that crashed in a wooded area near on June 20, 2026 has been identified in an official accident record as . Aircraft registry records list the registration as a Piper PA-28-181 with a Lycoming O&VO-360 series engine and serial number 28-7690114, registered in the United States. ABC News reported that people were aboard and that were killed, including passengers, with no injuries and no deaths on the ground. The outlet reported that the had taken off from Ocean City, New Jersey, bound for Montgomery County Air Park, that an iPhone crash alert was received about 15 minutes after takeoff, and that the wreckage was found in woods close to a residential area. According to ABC News, investigators believe the aircraft belongs to a local flight school in Montgomery County and that it was possibly on a training flight, and the victims were identified as Israeli nationals and a Canadian citizen. The cause has not been determined. Registry records list 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 a fleet of Cessna 172 and Piper PA-28 single-engine aircraft, a PA-28R Arrow and a Redbird simulator, with Ziv Levy listed as owner, manager and president and Harry Kraemer listed 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 earlier cases involving the same owner of record: ERA25LA311, N505LP, a Cessna 172 at Gaithersburg, Maryland on August 21, 2025; ERA24LA204, N1377U, a Cessna 172M at Westminster, Maryland on May 1, 2024; ERA21LA092, N505LP, a Cessna 172S at Culpeper, Virginia on December 22, 2020; and GAA19CA468, N38657, a Piper PA-28 at Gaithersburg on July 27, 2019. The NTSB database, which begins in 2008, contains 94 other cases involving the Piper PA-28-181, of which 13 involved a fatality. Neither set of records says anything about the cause of this accident. Geographic reference data places Bowie in Prince George's County, Maryland, at a settlement elevation of 164 feet, 4.6 miles north of Freeway Airport and 5.5 miles south-southwest of Fort Meade Executive Airport; that data locates the town, not the accident site. ABC News reported that the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration and Maryland State Police are investigating. The investigation remains open.

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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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