DEKALB COUNTY — DeKalb County fire said the four people have died in a plane crash at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport.
The FAA said a single-engine Cessna 210 crashed at 1:11 p.m. and caught fire after crashing.
The FAA said four people were on the plane when it went down. No one survived.
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“It was taking off, went straight up, and it took a hard right and hit the ground. The next thing we know we just saw a fireball. The whole plane went up in fire,” a witness told Channel 2 Action News.
Channel 2′s Matt Johnson said family members of the people onboard the plane were at the scene talking with officials. He described the scene as somber as people are hugging each other and comforting each other.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. Channel 2′s Christian Jennings spoke with the NTSB Saturday morning, they released a statement about the investigative process.
“Once on scene, the investigator will begin the process of documenting the scene and examining the aircraft. Part of the investigation will be to request radar data, weather information, air traffic control communication, airplane maintenance records and the pilot’s medical records. NTSB investigators will look at the human, machine and environment as the outline of the investigation.
The preliminary report, which includes all the factual information learned to date, is expected to publish 15 days after the accident.
At this early stage of an investigation, NTSB does not state a cause but will provide factual information when available. Investigations involving fatalities, and other major investigations currently take between 12 and 24 months to complete.”
More than 200,000 planes take off and land at the airport every year according to the facility’s data records.
Johnson spoke with Joe Hughes who works at Atlanta Air Tours, which is based at PDK. Hughes saw the video of the crash and said he could tell the plane had take off issues immediately.
“When it happens here at the airport, everybody knows because it’s just so rare,” Hughes said. “It looks like the pilot stalled the airplane. It looks like it went into a spin and then spins are not really recoverable.”
According to reports, the plane had been converted to Jet Fuel. Hughes explained that made the impact even more powerful.
“It makes things worse,” Hughes said. “You’ve got more more power to go up and more power to come down
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