A man was killed Thursday afternoon when a plane crashed at a resort on Lake Lanier in Hall County, deputies said.
The single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza went down around 5:30 p.m. in a parking lot along Lanier Islands Parkway near Pine Cone Drive at the Lanier Islands resort. The man killed was the only person aboard the plane, authorities confirmed.
He was identified as Howard Lee Joe, 60, of Dunwoody, by the sheriff’s office. Officials said no one on the ground was injured.
A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board uncovered that the pilot took off from the Dekalb-Peachtree Airport around 5 p.m. About 12 minutes later, the aircraft’s groundspeed and altitude began to decrease as it continued east over Lake Lanier, according to the investigation report.
A witness told NTSB officials that the plane was flying low over the water until it hit several trees along the shoreline and crashed into the parking lot. The plane then “exploded, and a large fire developed around the entire airplane,” the report details.
The cause of the crash was not explained in the report.
The Beechcraft was manufactured in 2008 and owned by the pilot who was killed, FAA records show.
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