GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Part of Memorial Park Drive remained blocked off by Hall County deputies Saturday, one day after a plane crashed into the woods and killed three people.
The crash sent debris flying into the street, into trees and into a home, forcing four adults and a child to leave.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent an inspector to the crash site Saturday afternoon. Their investigation will cover eight categories, including operations, structures, powerplants, systems, air traffic control, weather, human performance and survival factors.
Dustin York, who lives in the mobile home park where crash happened, said he saw the plane fly overhead after hearing what he called a distressed sound.
"It was pretty intense," York said. There’s nothing like it. It crashed right over my head. On instinct, I just ran to where the site was. I saw there wasn’t much fire or smoke so it was a clean crash. I was hoping there’d be luck of some sort of survivor. But there was nothing, just debris.”
All three people on board the plane lost their lives. Hall County officials identified the them as brothers Dan Delnoce of Gainesville and Matthew Delnoce of Ohio, and Courtney Flanders. It's unclear at this point who the pilot was.
Fire officials said the plane originally departed Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport in Gainesville on Friday, just before 7 p.m. It crashed two miles from the airport. According to fire officials, flight records show the plane was bound for Daytona Beach, Florida.
The crash site is about a mile from the Foundation Food Group chicken plant, where six people died in a nitrogen leak incident last month.