Yardley Man Who Flies Same Route As Downed Plane Shares Thoughts

YARDLEY, PA —When Yardley Borough Councilman Jared Stump saw the news, he was familiar with the airline that crashed into the Potomac River in Washington D.C. after colliding with a military helicopter, killing 67 people earlier this week.

Stump, who owns a small marketing firm, flies regularly, probably about 40 times over the past year, often on American or American Eagle with some flights stopping at Reagan National Airport before connecting home to Philadelphia and then to the borough.

"There is a very real possibility that I have been on the very plane that crashed at one point in the past few years," Stump told Patch Friday.

While the American Eagle fleet has 106 planes, there are only 80 of the model of the plane that crashed on Tuesday night. That raises the chances, Stump said.

Stump has accounts in 10 states so he travels often for his job.

He's been to Wichita, Kansas, numerous times as well over the years.

"My first thought was, 'Oh Wow, that was a flight I could have easily picked,'" Stump said. "The odds are much higher that I'm on this plane."

Stump also feels a little closer connection to the tragedy. He said that two friends of his knew victims who were on the fatal flight.

"It is sobering to think that something like this could happen to me or someone I know," Stump said. "In fact, I just saw over lunch that a friend of a friend was a passenger on the flight that crashed."

(Jared Stump)