Plane fuel tank empty in man’s crash in Twiggs County

A Bibb County man’s plane ran out of fuel before it went down in Twiggs County Wednesday.

“The plane was slap out of fuel,” Twiggs County Sheriff Darren Mitchum said.

Mitchum was first alerted about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday after a call from Robins Air Force Base reporting that a plane went off radar about 3 a.m. Wednesday.

A signal from the Cirrus SR22 indicated it was down near the Wolf Creek Landfill, and Mitchum and deputies began searching there, about a mile off U.S. 80.

One deputy spotted what he thought was a wing sticking up from the trees, and a Georgia State Patrol helicopter was brought in to locate the wreckage.

Mitchum and deputies hiked about a mile into the woods and found the plane, but no pilot.

“I found a set of shoe tracks leading out. It was real muddy,” Mitchum said.

A relative of pilot Robert Buzzell notified the sheriff’s office that he was safe at home in Lizella.

“He wasn’t injured, but we had an ambulance check him out anyway,” Mitchum said.

Buzzell returned to the crash site with officers and met with investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

“He did tell them ... that he had been up for three or four days and he was recovering from some sort of addiction,” Mitchum said.

No charges were initially filed against Buzzell, he said.

The aircraft was equipped with a parachute for emergency landings, and that chute was deployed, according to the FAA’s preliminary accident report.

Investigators removed the aircraft from the woods and will examine it further at the NTSB salvage yard in Griffin.

This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Plane fuel tank empty in man’s crash in Twiggs County."