STOCKBRIDGE, Ga.-
A small plane crashed near a residential street Friday morning, killing three of the four people aboard after it apparently clipped a power line during takeoff, authorities said.
The single-engine Cessna went down shortly before 10 a.m., Henry County sheriff’s Lt. Randy Moore said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the plane appeared to have hit power lines as it took off. The wreckage lay near a residential street a few steps from a home’s driveway and just beyond the runway of Berry Hill Airport.
The plane was registered to Durwood C. Smith of McDonough, Ga., Bergen said.
Smith’s mother-in-law, Elsie Crocker, told The Associated Press that Smith and his wife, Patricia, and two adult friends left to take the plane to St. Simons Island, between Brunswick and Savannah, for the day. A police official, Carmen Hipp, confirmed that the Smiths were aboard.
“They were going to have fun together. They’re such great friends,” Crocker said through tears.
The survivor’s identity and condition were not immediately released.
Stockbridge is about 20 miles southeast of Atlanta.
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