Found Deceased Dominican Republic - Orlando Moore & Portia Ravenelle, from NY on vacation, April 2019

[Vern]

A bit more digging into flights from DR-NY.
There are 2 other overnight flights, but with JetBlue to JFK, 2:23am and 4:49am
Wonder if they were trying to make one of those instead?

Do either of them have a 1/2 prior for check in do you know? In a very early interview with the Canuk female, she said they had to make the airport for 2 am. That time may make sense if one of those other flights was their goal.

 

[ilovechili]

There is a 1:30am flight to NY every night from that airport so there must be enough demand. I've looked on FlightRadar but can only go back a week, the most delayed flight being 1:57. Can anyone see further back than that on another site, for 27th? If that flight was running late, and they knew that, they may well have been going hell for leather (and taking risks) to make it.

But still.... being at Marbella toll booth at 1:41am suggests they either left the hotel after 11pm, or there was a traffic delay (seems unlikely at that time of night), or they got horribly lost earlier in the journey, or they had to keep stopping for another reason.

Just going by her more than enough concern about this drive that day, I just do not see Portia wanting to leave very late, I see her erring on the side of caution. Maybe if there was something they could not avoid.

I too would really like to know if the flight took off on time. Are we also sure that was the only flight possible that night? What I mean is the reports that said their flight was at 2:00? Finally, does anyone know what airline it was?

There is not one thing in this case that documentation has been shown on. Nada. Zilch. Zero.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I absolutely agree that they knew they weren't going to make it. I do think that is still where they were heading to though -no hotel to head back to, so might as well stay on track for the airport and see when they could next get a flight out.

This is just tragic all the way around.

It is tragic, and it seems entirely plausible it was a genuine accident. It might be hard to determine how Orlando died, but the hospital and coroner should have a damn good idea of exactly what happened to Portia.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Do either of them have a 1/2 prior for check in do you know? In a very early interview with the Canuk female, she said they had to make the airport for 2 am. That time may make sense if one of those other flights was their goal.

Good point. I thought it was the 1:30 Spirit flight, but was it in fact the JetBlue an hour later? What has been reported?

My eyes are tired as it's almost midnight here in England. My husband just asked why on earth I was checking out flights from Dominican to New York. He thinks I'm weird.

 

[Songbird1973]

This "gap" other posters have noticed in the median between the east- and west-bound lanes near the crash site does line up with the area where the car was found.


But, (assuming they turned the wrong way off of Hwy 7), would they have been driving on the west-bound lane of the highway, or the side road, at that point?

There is also another turn-around spot shown in a NEWS4 article posted earlier today, a video report showing the path police believe they may have taken. It starts with the couple turning west off of Highway 7 (away from the airport) and doing a U-turn beyond (further west) of the wreck site. Something like this red line drawn by me:


The problem with both of these proposed turn around spots is that when turning west off of Hwy 7, it looks like you enter a small road (Marginal Avenida Las Américas) running parallel to the main interstate-like road (Autopista Las Américas). It is unclear from the Google satellite image whether there is an actual barrier between this side road and the west-bound lane of the "Autopista." I don't see obvious tire tracks between them either, unlike the multiple tracks seen in the dirt median between the main east and west bound lanes at this spot. So if they went west on the "Marginal" road, it looks like the first opportunity to enter the main road was in the area indicated in my map above, and in detail here:

But... This would still have put them in the east-bound Autopista lane with no visible way to get over to the west bound side, unless they drove the wrong way unto they reached the barrier gap noticed by other posters.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Do either of them have a 1/2 prior for check in do you know? In a very early interview with the Canuk female, she said they had to make the airport for 2 am. That time may make sense if one of those other flights was their goal.

Says 60 mins on their website.

I hadn't considered online check in, might expedite things if they were only travelling with hand luggage (doable? It was only a few days holiday, wasn't it?)

 

[CoverMeCagney]

This "gap" other posters have noticed in the median between the east- and west-bound lanes near the crash site does line up with the area where the car was found.
View attachment 179453

But, (assuming they turned the wrong way off of Hwy 7), would they have been driving on the west-bound lane of the highway, or the side road, at that point?

There is also another turn-around spot shown in a NEWS4 article posted earlier today, a video report showing the path police believe they may have taken. It starts with the couple turning west off of Highway 7 (away from the airport) and doing a U-turn beyond (further west) of the wreck site. Something like this red line drawn by me:
View attachment 179450

The problem with both of these proposed turn around spots is that when turning west off of Hwy 7, it looks like you enter a small road (Marginal Avenida Las Américas) running parallel to the main interstate-like road (Autopista Las Américas). It is unclear from the Google satellite image whether there is an actual barrier between this side road and the west-bound lane of the "Autopista." I don't see obvious tire tracks between them either, unlike the multiple tracks seen in the dirt median between the main east and west bound lanes at this spot. So if they went west on the "Marginal" road, it looks like the first opportunity to enter the main road was in the area indicated in my map above, and in detail here:
View attachment 179452
But... This would still have put them in the east-bound Autopista lane with no visible way to get over to the west bound side, unless they drove the wrong way unto they reached the barrier gap noticed by other posters.

Good mappage! I think that middle map shows the probable (legal) route but annoyingly I can't see clearly enough to work out whether they'd have been stuck on the marginal road. Or, whether they actually headed east from 7 and went under that complicated underpass / slip road thing and took a wrong turn at that point.

(I'm also suffering from left/right confusion as we drive on the other side here!)

 

[bradfordsleuth]

I wonder when their credit cards were last used?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Well, they certainly must have intended to fly back to Newark with Spirit Air:

The Mount Vernon, New York couple left from Newark Liberty Airport on March 23 for a romantic vacation at the Grand Bahia Principe Cayacoa Resort. Family and friends became alarmed when the couple failed to return home on March 27. Their personal car was found still sitting in the Newark Liberty Airport parking lot.

So, unless they were hastily trying to book onto a later JetBlue flight (or knew / hoped their Spirit flight was delayed) there was literally no point even trying to rush to the airport. They were never gonna make 1:30, never mind a 12:30 check in, and they'd have known that half way through the journey.

Any JetBlue or Spirit flyers know if it's possible to have a shorter check-in limit if you have a) checked in online and b) only got hand luggage?

 

[Songbird1973]

Good mappage! I think that middle map shows the probable (legal) route but annoyingly I can't see clearly enough to work out whether they'd have been stuck on the marginal road. Or, whether they actually headed east from 7 and went under that complicated underpass / slip road thing and took a wrong turn at that point.

(I'm also suffering from left/right confusion as we drive on the other side here!)

Well, I hadn't thought of that! But, I too studied that complicated underpass earlier and as best I can see, coming underneath from the sideroad, it doesn't let you enter the westbound lane.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Well, I hadn't thought of that! But, I too studied that complicated underpass earlier and as best I can see, coming underneath from the sideroad, it doesn't let you enter the westbound lane.

I think you're right, you can't head west from the underpass. So that leaves them heading west on the marginal road (easily done, airport and town are both called Santa Domingo but are in opposite directions) but I can't see any gaps for them to get from marginal to main highway. The map quality is rubbish, though.

Maybe someone else used that gap to do a u-turn and hit them as they were heading back east?

Off topic but check out crazy Spaghetti Junction in Birmingham, UK!
spaghetti junction birmingham uk - Google Search

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I just went to book the next flight out of DR to NY with JetBlue tomorrow. They only show flights more than 90 minutes ahead and it's $306. I wouldn't call that a good deal, but then we flew UK to Italy last summer for $26 per person with Ryanair - no joke, the suitcase's flight cost more - and, like Spirit Air, they tend to use the smaller, further away airports. Seems this is how O&P got stung in the first place. There's always a catch!

 

[osu]

There is a 1:30am flight to NY every night from that airport so there must be enough demand. I've looked on FlightRadar but can only go back a week, the most delayed flight being 1:57. Can anyone see further back than that on another site, for 27th? If that flight was running late, and they knew that, they may well have been going hell for leather (and taking risks) to make it.

But still.... being at Marbella toll booth at 1:41am suggests they either left the hotel after 11pm, or there was a traffic delay (seems unlikely at that time of night), or they got horribly lost earlier in the journey, or they had to keep stopping for another reason.

At this site you can go back and look at flight history for six months. Here’s the data for the Spirit Air flight #NK1036 on March 27th scheduled to leave at 1:30 am. It shows that flight was delayed by 9 minutes.

The next day (March 28th), it shows that same flight was delayed by 50 minutes.

NK1036: Mar 2019 All Details and Delays for Spirit Airlines NK1036 from Santo Domingo (SDQ) to New York (EWR) - Flightera

 

[bradfordsleuth]

At this site you can go back and look at Flight History for six months. Here’s the data for the Spirit Air flight #NK1036 flight on March 27th schemed to leave at 1:30. It shows that flight was delayed by 9 minutes.

The next day (March 28th) it shows that sane flight was delayed by 50 minutes.

NK1036: Mar 2019 All Details and Delays for Spirit Airlines NK1036 from Santo Domingo (SDQ) to New York (EWR) - Flightera

This is great info to have! Thank you for posting this.

 

[Songbird1973]

I think you're right, you can't head west from the underpass. So that leaves them heading west on the marginal road (easily done, airport and town are both called Santa Domingo but are in opposite directions) but I can't see any gaps for them to get from marginal to main highway. The map quality is rubbish, though.

Maybe someone else used that gap to do a u-turn and hit them as they were heading back east?

Off topic but check out crazy Spaghetti Junction in Birmingham, UK!
spaghetti junction birmingham uk - Google Search

The possible gap to get from the Marginal road to the main road is seen here, but they would still have been going west. There is a complicated overpass farther west, but this one doesn't look like you can get on or off the westbound lane at all. If they were still on the side road, they maybe could've turned right, done a u-turn down the road a bit and entered the east-bound.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

At this site you can go back and look at Flight History for six months. Here’s the data for the Spirit Air flight #NK1036 flight on March 27th schemed to leave at 1:30. It shows that flight was delayed by 9 minutes.

Excellent. So there's no way they were catching that flight. In fact, they might well have watched it fly off as they were at the toll booth.

Maybe they weren't rushing at all. Maybe they'd managed to get on the 4:49am JetBlue flight or booked a hotel. Maybe they'd intentionally headed towards the town instead to get petrol / snacks. Maybe they were just pootling back along that (straight and probably quiet) eastbound road and another vehicle came through that barrier gap and knocked or shocked them onto the verge, the car rolled, Portia fell out, and the car and Orlando went over the edge.

 

[ilovechili]

Good mappage! I think that middle map shows the probable (legal) route but annoyingly I can't see clearly enough to work out whether they'd have been stuck on the marginal road. Or, whether they actually headed east from 7 and went under that complicated underpass / slip road thing and took a wrong turn at that point.

(I'm also suffering from left/right confusion as we drive on the other side here!)

If they were on the avenue which 7 does exit to both right and left, they could have turned around on any side street coming off of it from what I can tell with no need to travel across a median, westbound lanes and then to eastbound lanes. Just simply turn around and go back down the avenue, at least that is the way it looks to me.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

At this site you can go back and look at flight history for six months. Here’s the data for the Spirit Air flight #NK1036 on March 27th scheduled to leave at 1:30 am. It shows that flight was delayed by 9 minutes.

@osu would you mind checking the JetBlue 2:23am flight on the same date, 27th, please? Was that one delayed?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I'm starting to think it could have been an accident caused by someone else. There needn't even have been contact if Orlando swerved suddenly and flipped the car. Surely road accident investigators should be able to determine exactly where the car came off the road (tyre marks, smashed glass, debris, flattened grass, broken branches, scraped rocks etc etc)

 

[ilovechili]

I'm starting to think it could have been an accident caused by someone else. There needn't even have been contact if Orlando swerved suddenly and flipped the car. Surely road accident investigators should be able to determine exactly where the car came off the road (tyre marks, smashed glass, debris, flattened grass, broken branches, scraped rocks etc etc)

I think this is as likely as anything and it could have been a hit and it could have been them trying to avoid someone on them.

I go back though to the more than one time statement that the fishermen heard a crash on the highway. That is, if we can trust that statement.

Frustrating.