A devastating plane crash that wiped out a Canadian family of five last year likely stemmed from a fatal slip by the father piloting the aircraft, a new National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report concludes. The fiery March 4, 2024, wreck on the edge of Nashville left no survivors—and now points to human error over mechanical failure.
The Piper PA-32RT, a single-engine plane, was carrying Victor Dotsenko, 43, his wife Rimma, 39, and their kids David, 12, Adam, 10, and Emma, 7, all from King Township, Ontario. After a journey from Ontario with pit stops in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, Dotsenko was steering toward Nashville’s John C Tune Airport when disaster struck. The NTSB found the plane’s fuel selector toggled awkwardly between “off” and the left tank—a move investigators say likely choked the engine as Dotsenko prepped for landing.
Cleared to touch down around 7:40 p.m., Dotsenko inexplicably stayed aloft instead of descending. He asked to loop back for another try, but soon radioed a chilling update: “My engine’s shut down.” A controller pressed him—could he still land? “I’m going to be landing, I don’t know where,” he replied, desperation creeping in. Urged to glide toward a cleared runway, Dotsenko’s final words sealed the tragedy: “I’m too far away. I’m not going to make it.”
The plane slammed into grass off Interstate 40, erupting in flames near a Costco just 3 miles from the airport. Audio and video evidence captured the engine roaring at 2,650 rpm before sputtering with “popping” noises and falling silent. Motorists gaped in horror—one 911 caller gasped, “Oh my God. It almost hit my car!”—as the wreckage burned.
The yearlong probe found no mechanical gremlins, pinning the crash on that critical fuel selector misstep. For the Dotsenko family, a routine trip home turned into an unthinkable loss.