Plane Crash at GA General Mills Plant Under Investigation
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I’m Haylie Shipp.
An investigation is ongoing after a 1973 Cessna 340 fixed-wing multi-engine plane crashed this past Thursday into the General Mills plant in Covington, Georgia. The Covington Police Department reports the crash killed two people on the plane.
According to Fox 5 Atlanta, Federal investigators will be looking at a number of factors when trying to determine the cause. The weather was nice and mostly clear that night, but winds, turbulence, or temperature changes may have played a factor. Another factor investigators will look at is the human factor. Investigators said the owner of the aircraft was being trained by a pilot trainer at the time of the crash. They were performing touch-and-go exercises. Touch-and-go essentially joins two maneuvers into one - the aircraft lands on the runway, then accelerates and takes off again.
The plane took a right-turn, then came straight down into an area of the General Mills plant which is isolated and used for tractor trailer storage. The plane appeared to explode upon impact and an empty trailers caught fire as a result of the crash.
The General Mills plant produces cereal. The crash site is about 30 miles southeast of Atlanta.
