Student pilot crashes plane in Winder; no one injured

By Staff (89649)

Wednesday, August 30, 2006
© Copyright 2013 Gwinnett Daily Post

WINDER - No one was injured in a Barrow County plane crash Tuesday morning.

Barrow Fire Chief Mitch Kitchens said a student pilot doing touch-and-go exercises lost control of the plane he was piloting around 11 a.m. at the Northeast Georgia Regional Airport.

The plane's landing gear broke in the crash, but Kitchens said there was no damage to the runway. He did not know the student pilot's name but said he had not been hurt.

Airport director Glen Boyd said the Cessna 172 began leaking fuel and that the Fire Department was called as a precautionary measure. The runway was closed for about five hours, he said.

"It was basically uneventful, but we want to err on the side of safety and conservatism," he said. "It's about like a fender-bender with a car accident."

Boyd said the plane ran off the runway and hit a sign before getting stuck in the grass. The plane sustained substantial damage, he said.

The airport sees about one crash a year, Boyd said.

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