By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
EDITOR’S NOTE: Victim names have not yet been officially released by Maryland authorities.
A single-engine training aircraft operated by Washington International Flight Academy, a flight school based at Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg, crashed in a wooded area near Bowie early Sunday morning, killing all three people aboard, according to air traffic control recordings and FAA aircraft registration records reviewed by MDBayNews.
The aircraft, a 1976 Piper PA-28-181 registered to WIFA LLC at 7940 Airpark Road, Gaithersburg — the address of Montgomery County Airpark — was on a night training flight inbound from Ocean City, New Jersey, to the airpark when it went down shortly before midnight. Authorities were alerted not by a distress call but by an automatic crash notification from an iPhone found at the scene.
Law enforcement and rescue teams searched for nearly four hours before locating the wreckage around 3:45 a.m. behind a residential complex and playground on Scarlet Oak Terrace in Bowie, Prince George’s County. The debris field of the Piper stretched approximately 100 feet. There were no survivors. “It was an absolute tragic incident,” Maryland State Police spokesperson Elena Russo said. “It could have been even worse because of the proximity to a townhome community in Bowie.”
Air traffic control recordings from the Potomac Approach GRACO sector, obtained by MDBayNews, document the moments after the aircraft disappeared from radar. A controller, aware that the plane was missing, directed a search aircraft to the last known position: “You are less than a half mile, almost on top of it,” the controller can be heard saying. “A Run to One, are you seeing anything? You’re directly on top of it right now.”
The recordings indicate the aircraft’s transponder last showed an altitude of approximately 200 feet, a couple of miles from Freeway Airport in Bowie, consistent with the crash location. Flight track data reviewed by aviation observers shows a slow, gradual descent over several minutes in the vicinity of Freeway Airport — not near Montgomery County Airpark, the plane’s intended destination — suggesting the aircraft was in distress well before impact. Controllers were still attempting to locate the wreckage when the recording ends.
In a striking exchange captured in the recordings, a Potomac Approach controller identified another aircraft from the same flight school that was airborne at the time and asked the pilot directly: “Are you the same flight school as two four nine Whiskey Foxtrot?” When the pilot confirmed, the controller asked how many people were aboard the downed aircraft and instructed the pilot to call a phone number upon landing to relay everything they knew about the plane, including how much fuel the aircraft typically carried.
The victims were identified in an internal communication sent by school leadership to WIFA students and staff early Sunday morning. The message, signed by a school official identified only as “Chuck,” confirmed the aircraft was N249WF and that there were no survivors. It announced that all WIFA flights on Sunday were canceled and offered grief counseling to students and staff. MDBayNews is withholding the victims’ names pending official release by Maryland authorities.
Israeli media identified the three aboard as Israeli nationals. Investigators believe the flight was a training flight.
FAA airmen registry records reviewed by MDBayNews shed new light on the experience level of those aboard. One of the three held a private pilot certificate issued June 3, 2026 — just 18 days before the crash — with a rating for single-engine land aircraft. His FAA address of record is 7940 Airpark Road, Suite C, Gaithersburg, the address of WIFA, consistent with his status as a student or recent graduate of the school. A second held only a student pilot certificate, issued December 15, 2025. Under federal aviation regulations, student pilots are explicitly prohibited from carrying passengers. The third did not appear in the FAA airmen registry under the name provided. MDBayNews is withholding all three names pending official release by Maryland authorities.
The significance of the student pilot certificate depends on that individual’s role aboard the aircraft. If he was a passenger rather than a pilot in command, the certificate limit would not apply to the flight. But if questions arise about who was at the controls, the regulatory prohibition becomes directly relevant. The NTSB investigation will determine who was piloting the aircraft.
A newly certificated private pilot flying at night with passengers on a cross-country flight is legal under FAA regulations, which impose no minimum experience requirement after certificate issuance. But aviation safety experts note that newly licensed private pilots accumulate the bulk of their experience under instructor supervision, and night cross-country flying presents elevated risk for pilots with limited solo hours.
The School
Washington International Flight Academy has operated out of Montgomery County Airpark since 1989. The school is owned and managed by Ziv Levy and maintains a fleet of Piper PA-28 single-engine aircraft — the same model series as the aircraft that crashed. WIFA holds certification from the Student and Exchange Visitor Program to sponsor M-1 student visas, allowing it to enroll international students in its pilot training programs. The school advertises to international students and operates a joint venture with a flight training company in India.
MDBayNews has previously reported on WIFA’s operations at the airpark and its role as the dominant flight school at the publicly owned facility, which is managed by the Montgomery County Revenue Authority.
Montgomery County Councilmember Dawn Luedtke, who represents District 7 and sits on the County Council’s Economic Development Committee, which has oversight jurisdiction over the Montgomery County Revenue Authority and its management of the airpark, did not respond to a request for comment. Luedtke’s office has previously been involved in decisions related to the airpark, including the approval of a $3.425 million North End Hangar expansion project that MDBayNews has reported moved forward without standard community review. MCRA CEO and Airport Manager Keith Miller also did not respond to a request for comment.
Regulatory Questions
Prior to the crash, a District 7 resident and founder of Citizens for Airpark Safety had formally asked the FAA to conduct a flight check on WIFA. The FAA declined, according to written correspondence reviewed by MDBayNews. The resident says she has raised safety concerns about WIFA with the FAA’s Baltimore Flight Standards District Office — known as the FSDO — repeatedly over three years, and that the office has dismissed them without action.
MDBayNews has also reviewed a claim that a former WIFA pilot submitted a detailed safety report to the FAA documenting problems at the school, and that the agency denied receiving it despite the existence of internal communications confirming it was sent. MDBayNews has not independently verified this account and is seeking the underlying documentation.
The cause of the crash has not been determined. Aviation observers who reviewed the flight track data have noted that the aircraft’s descent profile — a gradual loss of altitude and airspeed in the final minutes before impact — is consistent with fuel exhaustion, a scenario that can occur when a pilot fails to switch between fuel tanks at the appropriate time. The Piper PA-28 requires pilots to manually select which fuel tank feeds the engine. The NTSB will examine fuel state as part of its investigation. This characterization is preliminary and should not be treated as a confirmed cause.
The circumstances of Sunday’s crash are under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA. The NTSB typically releases a preliminary report within two weeks of a fatal accident.
The aircraft, N249WF, was a 50-year-old airframe that received a new airworthiness certificate in July 2023, according to FAA records.
From the ATC Recording (GRACO Sector, 0330Z)
The following exchanges are drawn from Potomac Approach GRACO sector recordings from approximately 11:30 p.m. EDT Saturday, June 21, 2026:
“You are less than a half mile, almost on top of it. A Run to One, are you seeing anything? You’re directly on top of it right now.” — Controller to search aircraft
“The mode C indicated two hundred feet, and he was still a couple miles from freeway.” — Controller
“Are you the same flight school as two four nine Whiskey Foxtrot? Do you know how many people were on that plane? Was it one or two? There was three on board.” — Controller to WIFA pilot
“When you get on the grounds, I want you to call that number and I want you to tell them all the information about that plane. How much fuel you guys typically take off with? Anything you know about that plane, call and tell him.” — Controller
“It’s going to be any moment now — it’s the last position that we had it.” — Controller on locating wreckage
Sources:
This report is based on FAA aircraft registration records, Potomac Approach air traffic control recordings obtained from LiveATC.net, Maryland State Police statements, internal communications obtained by MDBayNews, and written correspondence reviewed by MDBayNews. Flight school ownership and fleet information was confirmed through FAA registry records and the school’s publicly available website.
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