One dead in plane crash in Peach County

FORT VALLEY -- A Byron man was killed Friday when a small plane crashed in a field in east Peach County.

A call came in around 11:30 a.m. that a single-engine plane had crashed across from Plane Living Skypark on Buckeye Road, Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese said. Brian Powers, a 78-year-old Byron resident and area flight instructor, was killed, while John Reynolds of Macon, 52, was taken to the Medical Center, Navicent Health, with injuries.

“He was alert and conscious and talking, so we don’t think it’s anything very serious,” Deese said.

Reynolds was in stable condition Friday afternoon, a hospital representative said.

Deese said it was unclear which man was flying the plane at the time of the crash.

The flight left from Macon earlier Friday morning, said Henry Lowe, owner of Lowe Aviation at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport. He was unsure of the details of the flight but confirmed that the plane, a Luscombe 8E built in 1946 and registered through the Federal Aviation Administration to Garry Cummings from Commerce, was not one from his company.

“It was based in another privately owned hangar,” he said.

Cummings said he sold the plane to Danny Harrison of Macon in November. Harrison declined to comment on the situation. FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said no sale was pending according to the agency’s records, and potential updates could not be confirmed until Tuesday.

Sheriff’s deputies did not have many details on the crash. The plane did leave evidence on its flight path that indicated it may have been coming to land at a private airstrip alongside the Skypark.

“There’s some marks in the ground where it obviously hit and then flipped over,” Deese said. “But it was coming from the south headed toward the landing strip.”

The owner of the landing strip, David Murphy, declined to comment.

Deese said pilots of smaller planes have often been allowed to do training at the strip.

“That could be what we’re looking at here,” he said.

There were no known witnesses. Deese said two passers-by stopped to help sometime after the crash.

“There were two people that got here and just noticed the plane and they were able to get there, and they were able to drag the people out because there was gas and they were afraid it would catch on fire,” he said.

Similar incidents have not been an issue near the small airstrip. Deese said he couldn’t remember the last time a plane crashed in the county.

Longtime county resident Stan Moye came to the site Friday afternoon and said there haven’t been safety concerns among his neighbors.

“I haven’t heard anything,” he said.

As part of Friday’s investigation, authorities enlisted the help of a Georgia State Patrol helicopter. Deese said the helicopter provides documentation opportunities at the scene that deputies on the ground don’t have.

“We just had them come down to do some aerial photos for us,” he said.

The FAA was expected to join the investigation later Friday.

To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331.

This story was originally published January 16, 2015 at 12:00 PM with the headline "One dead in plane crash in Peach County ."