Plane Crash North Of Atlanta Interstate 285, Kills Four People
Plane Crash North of Atlanta Interstate 285, Kills Four People
A single-engine Piper PA-32 crashed just north of Atlanta on Interstate 285 earlier this morning, reported CNN. All four people on board died in the plane crash which occurred just after the morning rush hour. Luckily no one else was hurt despite the plane’s landing location.
The four people who did not survive the crash were on their way to the University of Mississippi. One of them was 25-year-old Phillip Byrd which was on his way to his graduation. Along with him were, Phillip’s father, brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law.
According to Yahoo! News the plane flew out of DeKalb Peachtree Airport and ran into trouble shortly after it took off. One witness, Don McGhee said, “It looked like it was struggling. You could see him trying to get the nose of the plane up. It was edging up, and then it just dropped,” McGhee said. “It was just a huge fire, just smoke and fire.” Other witnesses said that the fire that resulted from the crash made it impossible for anyone to help the victims in the plane.
Lanes in both directions of the I-285 were stopped for several hours near the crash site which caused lots of traffic. Keith Holloway, National Transportation Safety Board spokesman has said that an investigator has been dispatched by the agency to “determine what happened and why it happened.”
“Holloway said the NTSB will likely issue a preliminary report next week reporting some investigation details and witness comments, but no analysis or conclusions about the likely cause of the crash. He said it usually takes a year to 18 months for the NTSB to issue a report on the crash’s probable cause” reported AJC.com.
Officials said the plane, also known as a Piper Lance, crashed with after taking off from Runway 3 Left, the northbound runway. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said the agency dispatched a locally-based investigator to the scene with the ultimate goal to “determine what happened and why it happened,” he said.
Holloway said the NTSB will likely issue a preliminary report next week reporting some investigation details and witness comments, but no analysis or conclusions about the likely cause of the crash. He said it usually takes a year to 18 months for the NTSB to issue a report on the crash’s probable cause.