GREENSBORO -- Three people died Friday afternoon when their single-engine airplane crashed at the north edge of Lake Brandt.
The pilot, who was trying to land at Piedmont Triad International Airport, radioed air traffic controllers at 1:41 p.m. that the Cessna 182 couldn't maintain altitude during its approach.
Workers in the airport's control tower heard a "loud noise" over the airwaves shortly thereafter that indicated the plane had crashed, said Battalion Chief David Douglas of the Greensboro Fire Department.
Authorities would not reveal the names of the victims Friday night.
The plane took off Friday morning from Bartow Municipal Airport in central Florida and was headed for Winston-Salem before being diverted to PTI, said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The aircraft is registered to Duboy and Fisher Inc. of Winter Haven, Fla.
Hampered by fog and rain, about 100 firefighters and police -- on foot, aboard ATVs and in cars -- searched for the downed plane. A transmitter that would have revealed the plane's location was not working.
Based on a tip from a fisherman, searchers found the plane about three hours after it crashed. The plane was nose down in a swampy area just east of the lake, about six miles from the airport, Douglas said.
Local authorities did not disturb the wreckage pending an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Visibility in Greensboro at the time of the crash was about half a mile, according to the National Weather Service. The cloud ceiling was 100 feet.
Douglas speculated the pilot may have become disoriented in the weather and was flying for two hours before the plane crashed. Douglas said there wasn't a fire at the crash site, which indicated the plane may have run out of fuel.
James Dean, 45, and a friend were in a boat on Lake Brandt for a company fishing tournament when they heard the plane make an unusual sound. They never saw the plane.
"It sounded like a truck gearing down," Dean said. "Like a muffler cracking. Then a big explosion. We both looked at each other and said that plane had crashed."
