The plane, a single-engine Cessna-182, crashed about two miles northeast of Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport in Gainesville shortly after takeoff, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Emma Duncan said in a statement to CNN.
The Hall County Fire Department responded to the crash around 6 p.m. ET and found that three adult occupants had died, Hall County Fire Department chief Zach Brackett told CNN in an email.
The flight was bound for Daytona Beach, Florida, he said.
Gainesville is located about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta and the county seat of Hall County.
Wing falls into the house
The plane’s wing fell into the bedroom of a mobile home near the crash scene while the family who lived there ate their dinner, Keith Smith, Gainesville’s fire department chief, said at a news conference.
“The trailer’s occupants were eating the moment the wing came through their roof and ended up in one of the bedrooms,” Smith said. “Fortunately, there was no one in the bedroom at the time.”
A 911 call came in shortly after 6 p.m. from a passerby who saw debris on the roadway and saw more aircraft debris as they looked into the wooded area across the street, Smith said.
The debris field extends for a quarter to a half mile, Brackett told CNN in an email. Brackett said five people were displaced in the incident because fuel fell on their homes but were not injured.
The Hall County sheriff’s office is handling the death investigation, Brackett said. CNN has contacted the sheriff’s office for more information.
Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, Duncan said.