No one survived the crash and Russia's prime minister says the cause may have been human error. The plane crashed into an Indonesian volcano on Java. ABC7 News spoke to Peter's family and as you can imagine, the family is just heartbroken.
Peter was supposed to return home to Oakley a day before his son Adam's 18th birthday. Instead of celebrating his homecoming, his family is now trying to figure out how to get his body back to the U.S.
"I love my dad, to death. He's my best friend," said Adam Adler.
Adam is now the man of the house. After learning his father was killed in a plane crash in Indonesia. Adam got the call from one of his dad's coworkers on Wednesday.
"He told me that one of the flights that he was on and doing the technical acceptance on. Was going over the mountain in Jakarta and I guess it went off radar, is what he said," said Adam.
The plane crashed into the near vertical side of an Indonesian volcano. Peter's job was to sign off on planes before they were bought to make sure they were technically sound. That's why he was on the Russian-built plane.
"This was the last demonstration flight for the customer that was about to purchase the airplane and after that, he was going to be on his way home," said Adam.
The Adlers are now trying to navigate their way through a tragedy practically a world away.
"You can't get the answers you want right away. It's definitely hard just waiting and hoping for some answers. I'd like to know more about what happened on the flight itself," said Adam.
That will take some time, but for now, Adam wanted to honor his father's legacy.
"I had plans to go to medical school right after I graduate and everything and that was all for him. Going to keep on doing it for him. He's my father, going to make him proud," said Adam.
The Adlers are working with the U.S. Embassy and the embassy in Jakarta so they can bring Peter home when he's recovered. Searchers have already started removing bodies from the crash site, but there's heavy mist in the mountains and that's delaying efforts.
