It was snowing and foggy on Wednesday morning when the pilot of a Cessna 172 based at Virginia’s Warrenton Fauquier Airport attempted to land at Freeway Airport in Maryland. On the second try, the airplane crashed, nose-first, about 300 feet south of the runway. Two pilots on board were killed, and a passenger in the back seat was seriously hurt. Wednesday night, as the fog persisted, a Columbia 400 carrying four men crashed just 500 yards from Stafford Regional Airport in Virginia. All four were killed. On Thursday night, a Cessna 182 hit power lines and crashed near a rest stop on Interstate 81, about a mile from Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport. The pilot, who was alone on board, died. Prince George’s County Fire and Rescue spokesman Mark Brady told NBC4 News that visibility at the time of the Freeway Airport crash was between zero and 500 feet. The airplane had launched from Warrenton Fauquier Airport in Midland, Va., and was trying to pick up another passenger at Freeway Airport and continue on to Atlantic City, N.J. The four men who died in the Columbia 400 were on their way home to Fredericksburg when they were diverted to Stafford because of fog. They had gone to a basketball game in North Carolina. The pilot who crashed near the interstate was a professional pilot who was out on a pleasure flight.
