It was an inferno on Atlanta’s I-285 where a small, single engine plane crashed near Peachtree Industrial Boulevard on Friday, May 8 at 10 a.m. There weren’t any survivors. Four people are dead, according to DeKalb County Fire Department spokesman Eric Jackson. The plane clipped the front of a tractor trailer before it’s crash landing. The truck’s driver Gerald Smith says in an interview with WSB TV, “It would have killed me if I would have hit the gas. Whoever was in that plane, my heart goes out to their families.”
The Piper PA-32 reported trouble while taking off at nearby Peachtree DeKalb Airport. The National Transportation Safety Board, commonly referred to as NTSB, is now investigating the scene of the crash.
UPDATE: According to Citizen-Times, the crash victims were Tan Universe tanning bed salon owner Greg Byrd, 53, of Asheville, NC, his two sons: Phillip Byrd of Asheville, and Christopher Byrd and Jackie Kulzer, both of Atlanta.
According to Greg Byrd’s Facebook page, he received his commercial pilot’s license on Jan. 22, 2015.
