Community Mourns Couple, Teen Daughter Killed In Plane Crash

UPPER MORELAND, PA — There is still little known about what made a small, one-engine plane crash in Upper Moreland early Thursday morning, leaving all three of its occupants — a husband, wife, and teenage daughter — dead at the scene.

But while there may be a mystery involving their final moments, there was no doubt who the Khurana family was.

Physicians and Lower Merion residents Jasvir Khurana, 60, his wife, Divya Khurana, 54, and their 19-year-old daughter, Kiran Khurana, had a lasting influence on the local community.

Jasvir was a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Temple University's Lewis Katz School of Medicine. He'd graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in 1982, and completed a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.

Divya was a professor of pediatrics and neurology at Drexel University's College of Medicine. Also a graduate of the All India Institute, Divya completed her fellowship at the Children's Hospital of Boston. She served as an attending neurologist at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, according to her Drexel profile.

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The couple's youngest daughter, 19-year-old Kiran.

Kiran was a 2018 graduate of Harriton High School. While at Harriton, she helped lead the school's varsity squash team to national competition. She was also involved in the school plays, working on the costumes team.

“[She was] one of our kindest students," Harriton principal Scott Weinstein said of Kiran in a statement. "She was humble, serving of others, and had an extremely bright future. We are deeply saddened by this tremendous loss."

According to the Lower Merion School District the family leaves behind another, older daughter, who graduated from Harriton in 2014.

The investigation into the crash is ongoing.

Jasvir, the pilot of the six-seater Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft, had a pilot's license. Just a few minutes after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport at 6:12 a.m., the plane came down in the residential area. According to National Transportation Safety Board investigator interviewed by 6ABC, the flight likely lasted only about three minutes. By 6:20, the plane had crashed and local residents had called 911.

"We're looking at the big items: so what we like to say is, the airplane, the pilot, and also the environmental conditions," NTSB Investigator Adam Gerhardt told the outlet. He added that there is no evidence there was an explosion in the air, and that the debris path is very small.

Jasvir did not place a distress call over aviation radio before the crash, the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety said. There was also reportedly no black box aboard the plane.

NTSB will likely be on the scene at Minnie Lane near Morris Road in Upper Moreland for the coming days.