A couple from Tennessee and their grandchildren from Mississippi were identified Monday as the four people killed in a plane crash Saturday in North Georgia.
The crash in Murray County killed Dexter Lee Gresham, 55, and Mary Jo Yarbrough, 61, both of Etowah, Tenn., and Austin Day, 10, and Kinsley Wilson, 10, both of Corinth, Miss., Murray County Coroner Jason Gibson told Channel 2 Action News.
Gresham, the pilot, was married to Yarbrough, and the kids were Yarbrough's grandchildren, the news station reported.
The Murray County Sheriff's Office confirmed the twin-engine Piper PA-23 crashed near Piney Hill Road and Old Highway 411 in Ramhurst, just south of Chatsworth, about 4:45 p.m. Saturday when it reportedly disintegrated in the air.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Eric Weiss said late Monday that the plane took off from an airport in Auburn, Ala., headed to Tennessee. The Murray County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to the Chattanooga Times Free Press that Gresham filed a flight plan with the McMinn County Airport in Tennessee on June 26.
During the time of the flight, Weiss said, thunderstorms were observed in the area. It is unknown whether the storms caused the plane to crash. The NTSB is still at the “very beginning” of its investigation, Weiss said.
“We look to find out what happened and why it happened, and hopefully to recommend ways to prevent things like this from happening in the future,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The couple had rented a hangar from the McMinn airport, according to WDEF-TV. The Times Free Press reported that the plane was registered to Yarbrough.
Though Gresham lived in Tennessee, he previously lived and worked in Georgia, according to public records database LexisNexis. The site listed him as a CEO of Gresham Hauling LLC. A phone number listed for the business was disconnected.
He was also a former manager at a Waffle House in Stone Mountain, according to LexisNexis, and had previously lived in Atlanta, Ellenwood and Lawrenceville.
Gresham had a current pilot’s license in Tennessee.
A neighbor and coworker of Gresham told WRCB-TV that he "lost good friends."
“They'll be in my heart forever," the friend, David Armstrong, said.
The site of the crash is about 85 miles north of Atlanta.
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