Owner of plane in deadly crash linked to at least 6 fatalities since 2014

ARMONK, N.Y. — The plane that crashed and killed two Ohio residents Thursday night near the Connecticut border is owned by a company whose president is now linked to at least six fatalities since 2014.

While heading home to Ohio, the pilot of a Beechcraft Bonanza A36 realized he had low oil pressure within the first halfhour of the flight after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, officials said Friday.

The plane was losing altitude as the pilot tried to fly toward Westchester County Airport and ultimately crashed into a wooded area near Rye Lake and the Greenwich border, according to Westchester County Executive George Latimer.

Officials identified the pilot as Boruch Taub and the passenger as Benjamin Chafetz. The Cleveland residents were found dead in a remote area near a reservoir in Armonk, a hamlet in North Castle, N.Y.

The airplane was registered to Daviation Inc., an Ohio company registered to Laurence E. Rohl, 79, of Willoughby, Ohio, according to records from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Ohio Secretary of State. Rohl’s various companies owned about 20 airplanes as of 2011, according to a ruling in a lawsuit over a financial dispute.

Reached briefly by phone Friday, Rohl said he knew the victims in Thursday’s crash before the call disconnected. He could not be reached for further comment.

Hearst Connecticut Media Group found four other accidents involving planes registered to Rohl or his companies since 2005.

The most serious accident killed four Case Western Reserve University students traveling in a plane rented from Rohl on Aug. 25, 2014. The plane crashed at Cuyahoga County Airport, in Willoughby Hills, Ohio, shortly after takeoff. The final report from the National Transportation Safety Board found that the 19-year-old pilot didn’t calculate the weight of his passengers, cargo and fuel correctly and failed to maintain control of the plane once in the air.

Last August, a plane carrying Rohl, a student pilot and one passenger crash-landed behind a middle school after experiencing engine trouble during a flight lesson in Gates Mills, Ohio, according to local NBC affiliate WKYC. The plane was registered to Pink Skies Inc. at Rohl’s address in Willoughby. Rohl and the two other passengers suffered “non-life threatening injuries,” according to the news report.