FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C.-- Three people were killed when a plane crashed Monday afternoon on the property of Vulcan Materials, East Forsyth Quarry, 2874 Highway 66 South
Kernersville, NC. A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board said the plane left Sarasota, Fla. and was headed to Piedmont Triad International (PTI) in Greensboro.
The pilot made an emergency call to PTI moments before the crash occurred. The details of the call have not been released.
Forsyth County 911 Center said they receive the call around 12:06pm about a plane crash. Dispatchers said the plane is a single engine and it crashed in a rock quarry in Smoke and fire was reported after the crash, dispatchers say.
NTSB tweeted that the plane was a Beechcraft A36 plane. The Beechcraft "Bonanza" is a six-seater, propeller engine plane; a very common plane for private flying.
Jim Christi, a 30-year veteran pilot said, "In the airplane world, they are not rare. In the airplane world, they are very common. You will see one at almost every airport you go to."
Christi said for the type of trip, from Sarasota to Greensboro, the plane is ideal and Greensboro would have been the perfect fuel stop. The plane is able to travel four and a half hours without refueling; the trip would have taken around three and a half hours.
If the pilot would have run into cloud coverage that lowered the pilot's disability, according to Christi, it would have been difficult to see.
"In an instance like that, if the pilot were unable to see through a cloud, then he would have only have between 13 and 20 seconds to recover and that might not have been enough time."
Federal investigators are expected to release more information later in the week. According to Christi, a lot of factors will be considered in the investigation, but the three most common causes of private plane crashes are engine failure, low fuel and weather.
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