Local couple killed in Detroit plane crash
NTSB agents work the site Monday of a fatal plane crash that killed a League City couple in Detroit. Detroit Police Capt. Mark Thornton said the single-engine plane apparently struck a power line and tree Sunday night.
As federal authorities Monday investigated the cause of a fiery plane crash over the weekend that killed a popular League City couple and critically injured their son in east Detroit, grieving friends and co-workers turned to Facebook to share remembrances.
Greg Boaz, who owns two Kemah-area eateries which were closed Monday, was killed the accident, as was his wife, Julie. Their teenage son miraculously walked away from the burning single-engine Cessna and is hospitalized in critical condition.
“It is with great sadness, and heavy hearts that we must announce that we have lost the founder of the Palapa Bar, Greg Boaz, and his wife, Julie,” Palapa Bar said in a Facebook post. “We at Palapas have been assured by the family that the business and the legend will go on, because that’s what Greg would want.”
The Boazs' Cessna 210 crashed near Detroit’s Coleman A. Young International Airport on Sunday evening and was “destroyed by fire,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a preliminary report. While officials have not yet confirmed the identities of any victims, grieving friends reported on Facebook that the Boaz couple were killed the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which also confirmed the accident, said the plane crashed in a residential neighborhood of east Detroit. Video of the aftermath, published by the Daily Mail, shows a teen — apparently the couple’s 17-yearold son, Peyton — emerging from the burning wreckage as shocked neighbors looked on.
Peyton Boaz was admitted to Detroit Receiving Hospital in critical condition after receiving third-degree burns, KTRK-TV Channel 13 reported. An employee at Detroit Medical Center on Monday night said Peyton had not yet been discharged.
Greg Boaz ran Palapa Bar in Kemah, as well as Lone Star Grill in Bacliff. Neither establishment responded to calls seeking comment on Monday, but both confirmed the deaths on their Facebook pages.
“Due to the recent tragedy, we will be closed today,” Lone Star Grill said on its Facebook page. “Thank you for understanding.”
Facebook posts depict the Greg and Julie Boaz as friendly and popular restauranteurs who were well-known in the Bay Area bar-and-restaurant scene. “Big man with a BIGGER heart,” Alvin Arnette, a Kemah resident, wrote on Palapa’s Facebook page.
The SCENE Magazine, a small local arts-and-culture magazine, changed its profile picture to a photo of Greg Boaz, dubbing him “the OG (Original Guy) in the Kemah Entertainment District.”
Citing “preliminary” information, the FAA said the pilot complained of low fuel and problems with his landing gear before the crash. The Detroit Police Department and the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.