At least two people are dead after a small plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Georgia airport.
Police responded to the Covington Municipal Airport in Newton County around 11:21 p.m. ET on Saturday.
The Federal Aviation Administration contacted the local police after they lost contact with the Rockwell Commander aircraft after take off at 11 p.m.
‘Officers responded to the Covington Municipal Airport at approximately 11:21 p.m. after receiving a call from the FAA in reference to a single engine aircraft that had taken off at approximately 11:00 p.m.,’ the Covington Police Department said.
‘There was no further communication from the aircraft after takeoff. Officers located the aircraft in the woods just north of the runway.
‘Two individuals were located with the aircraft and were pronounced dead at the scene.’
The FAA said they are investigating the crash along with the National Transportation Safety Board, and confirmed the aircraft was a Rockwell Commander.
No information about the victims’ identities has been released.
The crash comes after a wave of aviation accidents rocked the U.S. in recent weeks, including one of the worst air disasters in recent memory.
On January 29, an American Airlines passenger jet collided with a military helicopter over Reagan National Airport, killing 67 people.
The Black Hawk Army helicopter was conducting a training flight when it struck the regional jet near the nation’s capital.
Days later, a small air ambulance crash landed in Pennsylvania, killing six people aboard the jet and a seventh on the ground.
A medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood shortly after takeoff on January 31, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes.
These disasters were followed by a small jet dropping off radars in Alaska, leading to the deaths of all 10 people on board.
The tiny Bering Air Caravan took off from Unalakleet, a small community in western Alaska, and was on a short 55-minute commuter flight when it suddenly disappeared off flight radars over the Norton Sound inlet at 3:16pm local time.
The aircraft was discovered crash-landed 34 miles southeast of its intended destination of Nome.
All 10 victims onboard the small plane that plummeted into ice of Alaska’s Bering Sea have been identified and their remains have been recovered.
The pilot was identified as Chad Antill, 34. The remaining victims included Liane Ryan, 52; Donnell Erickson, 58; Andrew Gonzalez, 30; Kameron Hartvigson, 41; Rhone Baumgartner, 46; and Jadee Moncur, 52.
Ian Hofmann, 45; Talaluk Katchatag, 34; and Carol Mooers, 48 were also on the fatal flight.
Last week, private jet owned by Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil – which his girlfriend Rain Andreani was aboard – veered off the runway at a Scottsdale Airport in Arizona and crashed into another plane – leaving the pilot dead and several others hospitalized.
The 78-year-old pilot Joie Vitosky was killed when the landing gear of the plane owned by Neil malfunctioned, causing it to crash against a park jet in the Scottsdale airport.