Four people who died in a fiery private jet crash in Connecticut were identified Friday as a married Boston couple who were both doctors and two local pilots.
Police in Farmington said Courtney Haviland, 33, and her husband William Shrauner, 32, were passengers on the jet that crashed into a manufacturing company building Thursday morning shortly after takeoff from Robertson Airport in Plainville.
One of the two pilots killed in the wreck was named as Mark Morrow, 57, of Danbury, Farmington police Lt. Tim McKenzie said.
Morrow’s wife, Dunja Morrow, told The News-Times in Danbury that her husband ‘talked about flying every minute of his life.’
‘Everything was about flying,’ Dunja Morrow said through tears, adding that her husband was ‘up to par’ with Federal Aviation Administration rules and regulations.
Pilot Mark Morrow, 57, of Danbury has been pictured with his wife Dunja Morrow, right
Morrow was one of four people killed in a plane crash in Farmington on Thursday
Interstate Aviation, the company founded by the second pilot killed in the crash, released a statement on Facebook
Michael Morrow, their son, told the outlet that Mark Morrow had served as a flight instructor for decades and even taught him and his sister how to fly.
‘He was a very avid teacher and just loved to share his passion with flying for anybody and everybody he could,’ Michael Morrow said.
Family members described Morrow as ‘gifted, mechanically’ and said he could ‘fix anything.’ He had worked for private jet charter company ConnAir Corporation before COVID-19 and has been working freelance since then.
‘Flying was his life. It was his love,’ Michael Morrow said.
The other pilot was named as William ‘Will’ O’Leary, 55, of Bristol – whose father Bill O’Leary had managed the Robertson Airport on behalf of the town, according to a 2017 article from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Bill O’Leary also founded Interstate Aviation, an air charter service and flight school operating at the airport since 1971.
The younger O’Leary spent much of his time at the family’s business where he learned to fly, until his father sold the business, The News-Times reported. His sisters continue to work in the office for the company.
O’Leary continued flying charter planes from the airport after the business was sold, and was described by Plainville Town Manager Robert E. Lee as ‘very good at flying the jets in and out of Robertson.’
He was remembered by Robert Zirpolo, a former pilot for Interstate Aviation, as an ‘accomplished pilot’ and a a ‘mild-mannered guy’ who followed his father’s footsteps.
‘He wasn’t a guy who made a lot of noise,’ Zirpolo told The News-Times.
The airport has provided services to a number of celebrities in the past, including actor Matthew McConaughey, singer-songwriter Carly Simon and rapper 50 Cent, the Hartford Courant reported in 2007.
‘We are devastated by the loss of our friends and family members today. Thank you all for you love and support,’ Interstate Aviation wrote in a Facebook post.
The Robertson Airport in Plainville has a documented history of crashes, the Bristol Press noted in 2018.
Married Boston doctors Courtney Haviland, 33, and William Shrauner, 32, died in a private jet crash in Connecticut on Thursday. Their baby son was not with them at the time
That year, Burlington resident Donald Eckberg, 67, crashed a twin-engine Rutan Defiant plane into Plaineville’s landfill around 10:30 a.m. after it flew over a nearby condo complex south of the Robertson Airport.
As of 2018, there had been 17 airplane crashes in Plainville since 1982 though only three of them involved fatalities, according to data from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reviewed by the outlet at the time.
The NTSB had ruled that most of the wrecks were caused by either pilot error or a mechanical malfunction – or a combination of both factors, the Bristol Press reported.
Investigators with the NTSB were at the scene of the fiery crash Friday. The cause remains under investigation.
‘The Farmington Police Department extends their deepest condolences to the friends and family of the four passengers who died in this tragic crash,’ McKenzie said in a statement.
The wreckage of a business jet plane with four people on board, including two married doctors from Boston, is seen resting in Connecticut on Thursday
The Cessna plane crashed into a building at Trumpf Inc, a manufacturing company
The Cessna Citation 560X took off just before 10 a.m. on a flight headed to Dare County Regional Airport in Manteo, North Carolina, the FAA said. McKenzie said there appeared to be some type of mechanical failure during takeoff.
The jet contacted the ground a short distance from the runway and crashed into a building at Trumpf Inc. The impact set off chemical fires inside the building. Two employees suffered minor injuries, officials said.
DailyMail.com can now reveal that Haviland worked as a pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital after earning her medical degree from Weill Cornel Medical College of Cornell University.
Her husband, Shrauner, was a second-year cardiology fellow at Boston Medical College.
Friends and family members have mourned the loss of doctors Courtney Haviland and her husband William Shrauner
A spokesperson for Boston Medical College sent a statement to DailyMail.com, confirming the deaths of the couple.
‘We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of our cardiology fellows, Dr. Will Shrauner, and his wife, Dr. Courtney Haviland,’ the statement read.
‘Will, a second year fellow at Boston Medical Center, was well known as an outstanding educator, physician, colleague and friend to many. Our thoughts and prayers are with Will and Courtney’s family and loved ones.’
Dr Haviland (left) worked as a pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr Shrauner (right), was a second-year cardiology fellow at Boston Medical College
Haviland is pictured with her baby son, Teddy, during happier times
After also earning his medical degree from Cornell in 2016, he did his three-year residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, followed by a cardiovascular disease research fellowship, which he completed last year.
The couple celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in June. They had recently welcomed their first child, a son named Teddy.
One of Shrauner’s siblings revealed in a Facebook post that the couple’s son, Teddy, was not on the doomed flight with his parents and is safe.
Ben Shrauner wrote that his brother combined in himself the finest qualities of all of their siblings.
‘Courtney was a perfect match for him,’ he added. ‘[She was] smart, beautiful, witty, charismatic, and always fun to be around. Two really special people that are gone way too soon.’
The Thursday morning plane crash in Farmington, Connecticut sent flames into the sky
Two pilots and two passengers were confirmed dead by the afternoon, according to police
The plane reportedly crashed into the ground before sliding onto the factory building ahead
Gov. Lamont said ‘insularly fires’ broke out inside the Trumpf facility, where no one was hurt
The Cessna Citation 560X averages $2.5 million and can carry up to 10 passengers
Witnesses say the plane struggled to take off from the airport earlier in the day, according to reporter Caitlin Francis of WFSB. It hit the ground before eventually crashing into the factory building.
Photos from the scene show smoke billowing up as a mangled plane appears to rest next to the charred side of the building.
Cessna Citation 560Xs sell for as much as $2.5million, according to LibertyJet.com. The popular aircraft sits up to 10 passengers.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont thanked first responders at the scene and added that the plane probably had mechanical issues and hit a power line after taking off from the nearby airport.
‘It’s a chemical facility inside so there’s a lot of other insularly fires going on. Our amazing first responders were here almost immediately, but there was not much to save in terms of the folks on the plane,’ Lamont told WTNH.
‘I’m feeling the tragedy. I’m feeling it’s a state that’s had a lot of loss recently.’
The plane crashed in the small town of Farmington about a mile down the road from an airport
A website for Trumpf describes the Farmington campus as a ‘state-of-the-art training facility, where more than 25 full-time instructors teach hands-on classes for programming, maintenance, and equipment operation in a 48,000 sq ft fabrication shop.’
‘The production of solid-state laser sources and flatbed laser-cutting machines is also carried out in the Farmington facility, to better serve the needs of customers in North America.’
Burke Doar, senior vice president at Trumpf, said in a video posted on Twitter that company officials were assessing the damage Friday and trying to get production of machine tools and lasers for customers back on track.
A spokeswoman for the company directed further questions to the Farmington Fire Department.
A witness at a nearby company, Image First, told WTIC-TV that they heard a loud explosion and ran out to see the smoke.
Farmington is located in Hartford County, about 10 miles southwest of the state capital of Hartford. The 25,000-person town is about two hours from Boston and three hours from New York City.