Silver Spring Man Identified As Outer Banks Plane Crash Victim

SILVER SPRING, MD — A Silver Spring man was one of five people killed in a plane crash in the Outer Banks at the Wright Brothers National Memorial’s First Flight Airport, authorities said. A 6-year-old child was also among the victims.

Shashwat Ajit Adhikari, 31, of Silver Spring, was among those killed in the Sept. 28 crash, the National Park Service said in an update Monday. Adhikari was 31.

The single-engine Cirrus SR-22 plane crashed into a wooded area at the airport on the North Carolina coast on Saturday evening, authorities said. Witnesses told officials the pilot had been trying to land at the time of the crash.

The five people on board the airplane when it crashed were: Adhikari; Jason Ray Campbell, 43, of Southern Pines, North Carolina; Kate McAllister Neely, 39, of Southern Pines, North Carolina; Matthew Arthur Fassnacht, 44, of Marietta, Georgia; and a 6-year-old child. There were no survivors.

“National Park Service employees at Wright Brothers National Memorial, Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site (Outer Banks Group) extend their deepest condolences to the families, friends and loved ones affected by this tragedy,” said David Hallac, superintendent, Outer Banks Group.

Video footage from WAVY-TV showed charred airplane wreckage in the woods near the airport.