A married couple who lived in Dunwoody and owned a dental practice have been identified as the two people killed when their small plane crashed in Alpharetta on Halloween afternoon.
Max and Sharon Cohen, along with their golden retriever Callie, died Monday when their twin-engine plane crashed near the Big Creek Greenway while on approach to DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, according to information released by the Alpharetta Department of Public Safety. Max Cohen was a dentist who owned Cohen Dental Center, where he worked with his daughter, Sandi Cohen, who is also a dentist.
The Cohens’ identities were confirmed by a family friend who spoke to Channel 2 Action News and public records available through the Federal Aviation Administration and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Alpharetta authorities have not confirmed the identities and said the information would be released by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office “at a later time.”
The Cohens, who were flying to Atlanta from Jekyll Island, had already been cleared for landing when their Beechcraft G58 descended, disappeared from radar and crashed in a remote area north of Kimball Bridge Road, authorities said.
No distress calls were made from the plane before it went down, according to Alpharetta police.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the crash scene Tuesday and moved the wreckage to a facility where it can be inspected. The NTSB will review radar and weather conditions from the time of the crash, along with evidence from the wreckage. It will release a preliminary report in 2-3 weeks.
The final report can take 12-24 months to complete.
A family friend told Channel 2 that Max Cohen was an experienced pilot, and the website for his dental practice lists multiple aviation certifications he had achieved. State records show he was the registered agent for an LLC called Cohen Aircraft Leasing & Sales, the company that owned the Beechcraft that crashed.
The friend told Channel 2 that the couple, who had been married for 54 years, owned a second home on Jekyll Island and often flew to the Georgia coast. The dental practice’s website says Max Cohen had been in private practice in Atlanta for more than 35 years.
The NTSB is asking anyone who witnessed the crash to email witness@NTSB.gov.
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