Crime & Safety
80-Year-Old Pilot Killed In Georgia Plane Crash
A witness reportedly saw the single-engine plane take off from a landing strip, then head back toward it as if the pilot was trying to land.
COMMERCE, GA — An 80-year-old man was killed Monday evening when the plane he was piloting went down in northeast Georgia.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Woodrow Howard Minish, of Commerce, was the only person in the single-engine plane. It crashed at about 7:20 p.m. near Settlement Road in Commerce, Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum told the AJC.
Mangum told the paper a witness saw Minish's plane take off from a private landing strip, then circle back as if headed back to the landing strip. Instead, it nosedived into a patch of trees, he said.
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Minish had his commercial pilot's license March 2010, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA, as well as state and local officials, were investigating the crash Tuesday.
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Commerce is near Interstate 85 in northeast Georgia, about 20 miles north of Athens.
To read the AJC report, click here.
Photo via Shutterstock
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