It took TWO writers to come up with this crap. Less than a sentence into it, they already know it's the pilot's fault. If they have the inside track on some radio transmission that reveals more, then they should share that with their readers.
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Two die in Coweta County plane crash
By SAEED AHMED and RALPH ELLIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A pilot trying to beat bad weather died along with a second occupant when their plane crashed while trying to land at Newnan-Coweta Airport on Thursday night.
The twin-engine turboprop plane was on its way from Douglas, in South Georgia, to the airport when it went down around 7:55 p.m. about a mile off Martin Mill Road in a heavily-wooded area southeast of the airport runway.
Coweta County Sheriff Mike Yeager said the pilot, believed to be a Coweta County man, radioed the airport telling them he was coming in for a landing. The Federal Aviation Administration offficials lost track of the plane about 1000 feet in the air, Yeager said.
"He was coming in and having a hard time navigating," Yeager said.
A civil air patrol group that was meeting at the airport turned on the lights to assist in the landing.
Around the same time, area resident Mike Long said he was coming home from work and had stopped to pick his mail when he saw a plane flying "extremely low."
"That's what got my attention," Long said. "I saw a small flash when it hit the trees and an explosion when it hit the ground."
Sheriff Yeager said the plane burst in to a "big ball of fire" and debris spread over 500 feet.
"It looked like a small tornado came through," Yeager said. "We were trying to get enough water in there to put out the [fire]," Yeager said.
Buzz Weiss, a spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, said workers with the Georgia Forestry Commission initially wanted to bulldoze the heavily-wooded area to get to the plane. However, workers opted to use chainsaws in order to preserve the numerous plane parts scattered in the area.
According to the FAA charts that pilots use to land at a particular airport, the visibility required to land at the Coweta airport is at least one mile and a cloud ceiling of 400 feet or higher from the ground is needed.
According to the nearest weather station, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the visibility around the time of the crash in the area was 1/4th of a mile and the cloud ceiling was 100 feet with drizzle and fog.
The Beech King Air, manufactured in 1980, was registered to a corporation in Wilmington, Del., according to aircraft registration records. Yeager, however, said the plane was based out of the Coweta airport.
"A lot of planes in the state are registered to corporations set up in Delaware to avoid Georgia taxes," said John Hickman, who runs a flight school out of the Coweta airport.
Four years ago, two people died while trying to land at the Newnan-Coweta Airport when the pilot crashed short of the airport runway.
Steven DiStefano, 35, and his passenger, Steven Gurley, 38, died on impact in the early morning crash on Sept. 21, 1999.
Staff writers Tasgola Karla Bruner and Dave Hirschman and staff researcher Sharon Gaus contributed to this report.
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Two die in Coweta County plane crash
By SAEED AHMED and RALPH ELLIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A pilot trying to beat bad weather died along with a second occupant when their plane crashed while trying to land at Newnan-Coweta Airport on Thursday night.
The twin-engine turboprop plane was on its way from Douglas, in South Georgia, to the airport when it went down around 7:55 p.m. about a mile off Martin Mill Road in a heavily-wooded area southeast of the airport runway.
Coweta County Sheriff Mike Yeager said the pilot, believed to be a Coweta County man, radioed the airport telling them he was coming in for a landing. The Federal Aviation Administration offficials lost track of the plane about 1000 feet in the air, Yeager said.
"He was coming in and having a hard time navigating," Yeager said.
A civil air patrol group that was meeting at the airport turned on the lights to assist in the landing.
Around the same time, area resident Mike Long said he was coming home from work and had stopped to pick his mail when he saw a plane flying "extremely low."
"That's what got my attention," Long said. "I saw a small flash when it hit the trees and an explosion when it hit the ground."
Sheriff Yeager said the plane burst in to a "big ball of fire" and debris spread over 500 feet.
"It looked like a small tornado came through," Yeager said. "We were trying to get enough water in there to put out the [fire]," Yeager said.
Buzz Weiss, a spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, said workers with the Georgia Forestry Commission initially wanted to bulldoze the heavily-wooded area to get to the plane. However, workers opted to use chainsaws in order to preserve the numerous plane parts scattered in the area.
According to the FAA charts that pilots use to land at a particular airport, the visibility required to land at the Coweta airport is at least one mile and a cloud ceiling of 400 feet or higher from the ground is needed.
According to the nearest weather station, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the visibility around the time of the crash in the area was 1/4th of a mile and the cloud ceiling was 100 feet with drizzle and fog.
The Beech King Air, manufactured in 1980, was registered to a corporation in Wilmington, Del., according to aircraft registration records. Yeager, however, said the plane was based out of the Coweta airport.
"A lot of planes in the state are registered to corporations set up in Delaware to avoid Georgia taxes," said John Hickman, who runs a flight school out of the Coweta airport.
Four years ago, two people died while trying to land at the Newnan-Coweta Airport when the pilot crashed short of the airport runway.
Steven DiStefano, 35, and his passenger, Steven Gurley, 38, died on impact in the early morning crash on Sept. 21, 1999.
Staff writers Tasgola Karla Bruner and Dave Hirschman and staff researcher Sharon Gaus contributed to this report.
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