West Palm Beach, Fla.,None — The names of four people who died in a small plane crash were released Friday. The small plane, carrying two instructors and two passengers, crashed during a flight school training exercise. The plane was heading back to Melbourne from the Bahamas.
SEE PHOTOS: Pictures Of Victims CELL PHONE CAMERA: Watch Video | See Images AFTER THE CRASH: Aerial And Ground Images NEWS CONFERENCES: FIT 11/11 | FIT 11/12 | NTSB
Records show the plane was owned by Melbourne flight school FIT Aviation LLC, a subsidiary of Florida Institute of Technology.
Those who died were identified as: Kristopher Henegar, 22, an FIT flight student from Memphis, Tennessee who was due to graduate in December; Jenny Theresa Frembling, 26, an FIT aviation employee and instructor from Melbourne, alumni class of 2006; Jordyn Agostini, 21, a Florida Tech student and FIT aviation flight instructor from Pennsylvania. She was due to graduate from Florida Tech in December; and Kyle Henegar, 26, of Palm Bay, passenger and Florida Tech alumni, class of 2008, brother of flight student Kristopher. He was a Florida Tech Informational Technology employee.
Friends and family gathered Friday night to remember the crash victims. For the first time since the crash, Kristopher and Kyle's mother, Sharon Henegar, spoke publicly. She said her sons would call her each time they landed after a flight.
"When you go from "a" to "b", you call mom. And they didn't yesterday, and their cars are still at the airport because I'm waiting for them to come home," said Sharon Henegar.
Also at the vigil was Kristopher and Kyle's brother, Craig.
"I'm still so proud of them. I just miss them so much and I appreciate everything," said Craig Henegar.
The pieces are starting to come together, revealing more about what caused the Melbourne plane to crash. The National Transportation Safety Board was inspecting the wreckage Friday of the twin-engine Piper that crashed Thursday night.
Plane Crash Victims newer version 111210 SEE PHOTOS: Pictures Of All 4 Victims The student pilots and their instructor flew from the Bahamas to West Palm Beach. The twin engine airplane arrived at PBIA from the Bahamas to conduct a customs check. Once the customs check was complete and the plane was refueled, they began their departure to Melbourne.
Immediately after departure, the pilot communicated with the PBIA tower that they were experiencing problems. The plane crashed down after ascending to an undetermined height.
As a result of the crash, the plane exploded and began to burn with the four people still inside the passenger's compartment. Three were killed on impact; Kyle Heniger was transported to St. Mary's Hospital where he later died.
Investigators sifted through what was left of the plane, including the engines. They are, so far, the centerpiece of the crash probe.
NTSB Investigator Butch Wilson explained the initial observations of an investigation that will take six months or more to complete. The first clues came even before the twin-engine Piper crashed.
"[The pilot] talked to air traffic control. The pilot did state that they were having an engine problem just prior to the crash," Wilson said.
Palm Beach Post PBIA Plane Crash Resuce Ss PBIA Plane Crash Resuce Ss AFTER THE CRASH: Aerial & Ground Images The plane went down within seconds of that call. The NTSB isn't sure who was in control of the plane.
What they do know is that Kristopher Henegar, a flight student who had his commercial flight certification, was in the front seat, along with FIT flight instructor Jenny Flembling. The student was in the flight commander's seat, but had an instructor next to him with her own controls. Investigators say they may never know who was at the controls when it went down.
Investigators have already confirmed there was a serious problem with one engine.
"Initial examination of the aircraft shows that the left engine was not running at impact. The right engine was," Wilson said.
The plane had just taken off from Palm Beach International's smallest runway, but once in air the left engine quit and that's when the plane took a steep dive to the left and crashed into the runway below.
Late Friday afternoon, the plane was still on the runway. All day, departing and arriving passenger jets passed right by the wreckage.
The victims may have been pilots, but they were young. Now, their college and flight school is mourning their loss. Flags are flying at half-staff at FIT's aviation training center. A vigil was also held Friday night in Melbourne for the victims of the crash.
WFTV was told the two students were boyfriend and girlfriend, each with hundreds of hours of flight experience. Their instructor was considered well-qualified and the training flight was one she'd made many times before.
Less than 12 hours before her plane crashed in Palm Beach, Agostini posted an excited message on Facebook: "Flying to the Bahamas with Kris as P.I.C. [Pilot in charge]."
Agostini and Kristopher Henegar were set to graduate from Florida Tech in December. The crash also killed Henegar's older brother, Kyle.
Along with surviving brother Craig, the students were among about 4,000 at the four-year school and 400 at the College of Aeronautics.
"They died living their dream. Pilots have a passion to fly," student Kevin Thompson said.
Thompson told WFTV flight instructor Jenny Frembling was well-liked and highly respected as a pilot.
"She was one of the best, one of the best pilots I've ever known. It's just so sad," Thompson said.
During an afternoon news conference (watch it), the flight school's dean said they grounded the school's fleet of 40 planes, at least for the weekend, out of concern for students who knew the victims.
"Before we put people back in the airplanes, we want to make sure they're psychologically ready to fly," College of Aeronautics Dean Winston Scott said.
But at the school, where many graduates go on to be commercial pilots for major airlines around the world, people say they know the risks, even on a routine training mission.
"This is just an unfortunate accident and we're going to have to wait until the official report comes out and not draw conclusions," Scott said.
Tuition can run more than $28,000 a year for flight students.
There have been more than 25 small plane crashes nationwide in the last year because of engine failure. At least two of those incidents involved the Piper PA-44, which is the type of plane that crashed Thursday night.
One of them went down in Georgia. The other crashed in Utah. In those crashes, the passengers and pilots all survived.
WFTV
