LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. --
Rescuers have found the bodies of two people killed after a small airplane crashed Friday afternoon in Gwinnett County.
The twin-engine Cessna 310 took off from Gwinnett County airport en route to Sparta, Tenn., when it crashed into a house near the intersection of Oracle and Walker drives in Lawrenceville about 1:30 p.m.
Officials at the scene said the crash killed the pilot and a woman in the house. The pilot was the only person aboard the plane, according to Federal Aviation Administration officials. Their names have not yet been released.
Channel 2 Action News reporter Mike Petchenik attended a press conference Saturday where authorities revealed that the pilot was a doctor who liked to fly people for free. Authorities said the pilot was a cancer survivor on his way to Tennessee to visit six daughters when the plane went down.
The crash leveled the two-story house and sparked a huge fire, according to Gwinnett County and FAA officials.
Investigators at the scene Friday night told Channel 2 Action News reporter Darryn Moore that because the plane was built in 1965, it did not have a flight data recorder. They also said the fire was so intense that it destroyed both engines.
A fire department representative said the husband of the second victim was working from home, heard the explosion, felt the house shake and ran downstairs to try to save his wife. "I ran out, ran around the house and saw the owner coming out the front door. I was the first over there, and I grabbed him and pulled him out. He was trying to go around the back of the house looking for his wife," said witness Jack Jordan.
According to the FAA, the plane is registered to Doctors' Aircraft Services and KM Aviation out of Sandy Springs.
A Channel 2 Action News crew fed back video from the scene that showed a huge fire burning.
One witness said he lives a half-mile from the scene and the windows in his house shook when the plane crashed.
"We just heard a plane come over the house real low, and boom. That's all I heard, and I went running," said witness Dennis Slough. "It came over the house, and then I heard a boom."
"It was trying to pull out. It felt like at the last minute he was trying to pull out of a stall because you could hear the whine of the engine and then just a boom and an explosion," said witness Jonathan Lyon.
Fire crews remained at the scene Friday night to spray water on hot spots. Nearby residents returned to their homes Friday night.
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