Small plane crash kills 5 near Augusta

THOMSON, Ga. — A small plane aborted its landing at a Georgia airport before hitting a 60-foot utility pole and crashing, killing five people on board and injuring two, federal authorities said Thursday.
Robert Sumwalt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference Thursday afternoon that the plane caught fire after crashing. One of the plane's wings was severed when it hit the pole, causing a fuel leak that then ignited, he said. The plane is almost completely destroyed.
“You walk up and you wonder, ‘Where is the plane?’” Sumwalt said.
It was not immediately clear why the plane aborted its landing.
Thomson-McDuffie County Sheriff Logan Marshall said two survivors were taken to the hospital. A man was in critical condition at Georgia Regents Medical Center in Augusta, hospital spokeswoman Christen Carter said. The condition of the other survivor and where that person was taken are not known.
The plane took off from Nashville, Tennessee, and crashed while landing at Thomson-McDuffie Regional Airport, about 30 miles west of Augusta, the spokeswoman said. Federal Aviation Administration, Kathleen Bergen.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said the five dead were taken to an agency laboratory in Decatur for autopsies. They have not been identified.
Five of the people on board are affiliated with a vein clinic in Augusta that also has offices in Tennessee, said Dr. Stephen Davis, a plastic surgeon who works for Vein Guys Clinic in Nashville. Davis said those on board were: Dr. Steven Roth, two ultrasound technicians, a nurse anesthetist and a secretary. He said Roth regularly travels to Vein Guys clinics in the area, although other doctors working for the clinic don't travel.
Davis said his brother, Dr. Keith Davis, and Roth co-founded the clinic in Augusta. He described Roth as “a great guy, a great doctor, dedicated to patients and his family.”
Deputy County Fire Chief Stephen Sewell told the Augusta Chronicle that the two survivors were a pilot and a passenger. But he did not provide any additional information about the people on board.
A brush fire broke out near the crash site, in the woods behind an industrial plant about a half-mile from the airport. Witnesses reported power outages that prompted a utility to send workers to the site.
The accident site was on the opposite side of a national road to where the track ends.
Patricia Reese and her husband live on a farm near the site. She said Thursday that they were watching television Wednesday evening when they were startled by noise and a power outage.
“The lights flickered and went off, and all of a sudden we heard this noise,” Reece said. “It sounded like thunder that just kept going.”
Reece's husband grabbed a flashlight and they headed into the dark field behind their house. They quickly saw flashing lights coming from emergency vehicles and heavy smoke coming from the woods, she said.