18-02-2025
It's been a week since the deadly Scottsdale plane crash: Here's what to know
A week has passed since a plane owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil crashed into another aircraft at Scottsdale Airport after its landing gear appeared to fail causing it to veer off the runway, killing a pilot and injuring several others.
The fatal crash followed a string of incidents involving aircraft across the country beginning with the Jan. 29 incident where an American Airlines regional jet carrying 64 people and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three people collided near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C.
A total 67 people were killed.
A small medical jet carrying a child patient crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood on Jan. 31 killing seven people while a small plane carrying 10 people crashed in Alaska on Feb. 6, killing all 10 prior to the Scottsdale plane crash.
The most recent Delta jet carrying 80 people crashed in Toronto on Monday afternoon, becoming the latest in a series of aviation disasters during the first two months of 2025. No one was killed, but there were 18 people injured, as of Monday evening.
Here's what to know about the Scottsdale plane crash that killed one.
While there isn't an official finding about what exactly caused the crash, airport officials have said the plane's landing gear appeared to have failed during the landing, causing it to slide off the runway. The reason behind the gear's failure will likely be part of the investigation.
Police identified the fatality as 78-year-old Joie Vitosky.
Vitosky's daughter, Jana Schertzer, told The Arizona Republic that Vitosky began flying after joining the U.S. Marine Corps where he served several tours in the Vietnam War.
After leaving the Marines, Vitosky had an eclectic flying career, Schertzer said. He flew people such as Jesse Jackson, Maureen Reagan and owners of oil companies. He flew trips to retrieve parts for companies like FedEx and also flew transplant patients who were awaiting life-saving surgeries.
Rain Hannah Andreani, 43, is the only person on board the planes who has been publicly identified other than Vitosky.
Andreani is the girlfriend of Mötley Crüe lead singer Neil. Neil owned the Learjet, according to a filing with the Wyoming secretary of state. He was not on board, according to the vocalist's legal representative Worrick Robinson IV, who posted a statement about the crash to the band's social media.
Andreani's presence on the plane was confirmed on CNN on Feb. 11 by Mötley Crüe's manager, Allen Kovac. Kovac said Andreani was with a friend, and they were both injured, according to CNN.
The National Transportation Safety Board has taken over the investigation and will likely release a preliminary report going over basic facts of the collision within 30 days of the incident. The full report will likely take one to two years before it's released.
Cary Grant, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said investigations into fatal aircraft incidents often involve multiple parties, including the manufacturers of the plane's engine and landing gear, air traffic controllers, weather experts and possibly airport staff, given the crash occurred during landing.
Officials would likely investigate the training records and backgrounds of the plane's pilots, maintenance records of the plane's landing gear and whether maintenance followed manufacturer recommendations, Grant said.
The NTSB lists 15 fatal aircraft incidents in the Scottsdale area and four incidents involving a serious injury, with the earliest going back to the 1970s.
Two of the serious injuries involved student pilots, with one pilot having a hard landing after the plane's engine lost power and another with a pilot having a forced landing after misjudging their altitude and clearance, according to NTSB reports.
The last fatal crash at the Scottsdale Airport was in 2018. A pilot, student pilot and four passengers were killed after the plane crashed shortly after takeoff.
Scottsdale Airport is "one of the nation's busiest single-runway airports," according to Experience Scottsdale, a nonprofit that works with Scottsdale and Paradise Valley to market the area for tourism. The airport logs over 133,000 takeoffs and landings each year, according to the group.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: So many plane crashes lately, including Scottsdale crash
