On the same day two men died in a small plane crash in Barrow County, another man died in a separate crash in Georgia, officials said.
Donald Royce Anderson, 50, was killed about 6:45 p.m. Thursday when a Beech A45 aircraft crashed Thursday at Anderson Airport near Bainbridge, Decatur County sheriff's spokesman Chief Deputy Wendell Cofer said.
Bainbridge is more than 230 miles south of downtown Atlanta.
The deadly crash occurred just hours after Shannon Ewing of Dacula and his nephew, Henry Ewing of Jones County, were killed in another crash in Barrow.
Ewing and his nephew died when the Beech C23 crashed at the end of the runway at the county airport in Winder.
Roger Wehunt, who lives nearby, told Channel 2 Action News he thinks the pilot was trying to land in the field after a rough takeoff.
A third crash was reported Sunday. In that one, an unidentified pilot walked away with a bloody nose after his a Erco 415-C Ercoupe crashed into a tree line along Goodson Road in Dawson County, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.
That pilot had recently purchased the aircraft and its engine may have failed, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Preliminary reports are expected to be released within a week of the crashes, but full investigations could take up to a year to complete, Bergen said.
