From his pop-up tent on the corner of DeKalb Industrial Way, Caleb Rogers heard what sounded like lightning and saw sparks fly not far above the road.
The Braves T-shirt peddler returned to his customer, eager to make a sale, until a second explosion grabbed his attention. After a much bigger spark, power went down all along the DeKalb Industrial corridor at North Decatur Road.
“Sure enough, I see a plane on the road, and I see a guy crawling out of it,” Rogers told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from the crash scene Thursday. “I looked back to talk to the customer, and when I looked back, he was gone.”
The pilot, the only person on board, walked away unharmed after crash landing his single-engine plane in the busy medical district blocks from Emory Decatur Hospital, according to a DeKalb fire official.
The hospital’s operations were not affected, fire Capt. Jaeson Daniels said, but North Decatur Road was closed for hours between DeKalb Industrial Way and Winn Way while the investigation was underway.
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
The plane landed on its roof outside the Coventry Place Retirement Community. The Cessna single-engine, fixed-wing plane was registered in Warner Robins and was first flown in 1959.
“At first, I was just scared. I was just like I hope he’s OK,” Rogers said of the pilot. “I wanted to help. He gave me a little thumbs up.”
The cause of the crash remains under investigation. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the pilot declared an emergency after departing DeKalb-Peachtree Airport and landed on the road at 9:53 a.m.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board completed their initial assessment early in the afternoon. The wreckage was then removed from the road.
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
The crash initially knocked out electricity to 8,000 Georgia Power customers, including those in the senior tower. A few hundred customers were still without power late Thursday afternoon.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
