the plane engaged in the incident was a bombardier dash 8 , which crashed into a home named at 6038 long row in clarence central , a suburb of detroit . it went down at at 10 : 17 p . m . sw ( 03 : 20 utc ) , february 12 . 44 students , an off - duty piloted , and eight board members died in the accidents , as well as one person on the ground .
A plane crashed while flying on autopilot.