The pilot who died when his plane crashed in a northwest Georgia cow pasture has been identified as a 70-year-old New York man.
The man's picture ID was found in the wreckage and investigators have spoken with the victim's relatives, Bartow County Coroner Joel Guyton told the AJC Wednesday. Guyton said he will likely be able to release the man's name Thursday.
The single-engine plane crashed Tuesday afternoon off Floyd Creek Church Road in Taylorsville around 4:30 p.m., according to Kathleen Bergen, FAA spokeswoman. The rural crash site is located about 5 miles from the Bartow County airport, but it was unclear where the plane was headed, Bergen said.
Julie Rogers told the AJC she was sitting in her dining room when she heard what she thought was a loud motorcycle. Instead, it was a plane crashing onto her neighbors' property across the street.
"It pretty much took a nose dive into the field in front of us," Rogers said. “There was no fire. It just hit the ground and went to pieces.”
Rogers said she called 911 and emergency responders arrived in about three minutes. Bartow County firefighters and sheriff deputies remained on the scene Tuesday evening.
The field where the plane crash is home to cows, but they had recently been moved so that grass could be re-planted, Rogers said.
The cause of the crash has not yet been determined. Aerial views of the crash scene showed scattered wreckage from the impact and almost none of the plane intact.
Taylorsville, located near the Bartow-Polk county line, is about 50 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta.
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