LOWNDES COUNTY – A private plane crash east of Columbus resulted in the fatality of a local businessman Sunday afternoon.
Emmett Barry Sanford, 65, who was piloting the plane, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant. Sanford was owner of Trimjoist Corporation in Columbus, a manufacturer of wood floor framing products. There were no other occupants on board.
First responders, including Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, District 3 Volunteer Fire Department and Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, responded to reports of the crash at about 12:41 p.m. on a homeowner’s property off Cole Road near the Mississippi and Alabama state line, Merchant wrote in a statement to media outlets Sunday evening. The plane could not be identified by its tail number, which was badly burned during the crash.
Dan Duston, airport manager for the Columbus-Lowndes Airport, said Sanford departed from the airport at about noon, but was unsure of his exact time of departure. Sanford’s intended destination has not been determined, Sheriff Eddie Hawkins told The Dispatch on Sunday.
Duston said Sanford was a longtime member of the airport’s pilot family.
“He had been flying a number of years and was well liked, respected, and will certainly be missed,” Duston wrote in a text to The Dispatch on Monday.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, Sanford owned a Pipistrel Alpha Trainer plane with a Rotax engine. Alpha Trainers have ballistic parachute systems that can be deployed in the event of a catastrophic in-air incident.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board were on scene Monday to investigate the cause of the crash, and Homeland Security has been notified to review the accident, Merchant said.
Mike Hainsey, former executive director for Golden Triangle Regional Airport, said Homeland Security is notified of all aircraft incidents and reviews each crash for potential threats to national security, though that does not necessarily mean the department will be on scene to investigate.
Portions of Cole Road will be closed to traffic until the wreckage is moved and the investigation is complete.
The incident is the third plane crash in the Golden Triangle in less than a month. Two Columbus Air Force Base pilots on May 12 ejected safely from a T-38 Talon II that crashed in west Alabama, and two navy pilots safely ejected from an aircraft last week before it crashed in Noxubee County.
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