Engine failure leads to small plane crash on Kennesaw State’s campus

A small plane crashed into a tree while students were in class.

A small plane crashed on Kennesaw State University’s Kennesaw campus Thursday around 7 p.m., police confirmed.

The crash happened at the intersection of Bartow Avenue and Campus Loop Road, KSU’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) said in a tweet. The tweet also said there are no reports of damaged buildings or injuries to KSU students, faculty or staff.

Two people were in the plane, and they were taken to an area hospital, OEM said in a later tweet. They were seen sitting up on their stretchers and were conscious.

Cobb County Fire told Channel 2 Action News engine failure led to the crash, and the passengers were on their way from Omaha, Neb., to Charlie Brown Field in Fulton County.

Video obtained by Channel 2 appears to show the plane crashed into a tree. A large parachute is believed to have deployed from the plane shortly before impact.

The two survivors of the plane crash were seen being put into an ambulance on stretchers. (Photo: Avery Guthrie)

Credit: Contributed by Avery Guthrie

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Credit: Contributed by Avery Guthrie

Abby Rodriguez, a KSU graduate student, captured video of one of the crash’s survivors waving his hand.

“I just thought it was a bridge that collapsed,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We went to the parking lot, and I thought it was an explosion.”

Another graduate student, Megan Allen, said it was a deafening boom.

“It almost sounded like I-75 was collapsing ... It was so loud it was hard to comprehend what happened,” Allen said.

Tammy DeMel, Assistant Vice President of Communications at KSU, said the campus will be fully operational Friday.

Cobb County police said the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash, and a portion of campus may be closed as a result.

Investigators were at Kennesaw State on Friday morning to check out the wreckage of a small plane that crashed Thursday night. JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM

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