Fatalities Include Two Children During Training Flight

A Cirrus SR-20 with four people aboard went down Sunday near Navasota Municipal Airport in Navasota, TX. Two adults and two children on board were fatally injured.

According to the newspaper The Eagle, the pilot of the aircraft, identified as 67-year-old Russell Reina of Montgomery, TX, was teaching the owner of the plane, identified as 53-year-old Houston Businessman Amjad Sultan, how to fly. Sultan had invited his girlfriend's daughters, 11-year-old Jessika Delmira and her younger sister, Erika Ayala Argueta, age seven, to join them on the flight.

According to the Grimes County, TX sheriff, the plane departed from David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport at about 0820. The wreckage was spotted by another instructor pilot and his student as they prepared to practice landings at Navasota airport at about 0900 local time.

Sheriff Don Sowell said that Navasota is an uncontrolled airport, and that there was no indication of any problem with the airplane. "There was no mayday or anything like that," Sheriff Sowell said.

The plane went down in a partially-wooded area about a half mile south of the runway at Navasota.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov