6 dead after plane crashes into US home

Gaithersburg - A small, private jet slammed into a
house Monday, killing a woman and her two young
sons inside the home and three people on the
aircraft, authorities said. The jet crashed around 10:45 in Gaithersburg, a
Washington, suburb, Montgomery County Fire and
Rescue Chief Steve Lohr told a news conference. Authorities quickly said all three people in the plane
had been killed, but it took hours for fire crews to
sweep the home and confirm that three people were
inside. They were identified as 36-year-old Marie
Gemmell and her two sons, 3-year-old Cole and 1-
month-old Devon, police said. They were found in a second-floor bathroom.
Gemmell was lying on top of her young sons in an
apparent effort to shield them from the smoke and
fire, said police captain Paul Starks. Her husband and
a school-age daughter were not home and were
accounted for, police said. The fuselage of the jet crashed into the front lawn of
an adjacent home, which was heavily damaged by
fire, and investigators believe one of its wings, which
had fuel inside, was sheared off and tore through the
front of the Gemmell home, said Robert Sumwalt, a
national transportation safety Board member. Witnesses reported seeing and hearing a secondary
explosion after the plane hit the ground.