CANTON - Authorities say three people were killed when a small plane crashed in northern Cherokee County. <br>
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Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison said the plane went down at about 7:30 Thursday night in a heavily wooded hunting preserve just south of the Cherokee-Pickens county line. <br>
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The plane had taken off from the Pickens County airport. <br>
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Cherokee County Coroner Earl Darby identified the pilot as 34-year-old James Darrell Warden of Talking Rock, a licensed flight instructor. Two passengers, 43-year-old William Thomas Dunn of Blue Ridge and 14-year-old Brandon Lamar Abercombie of Ellijay, were also killed. <br>
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Warden had operated James Darrell Warden Flight Training Incorporated at the airport for about three years, according to William Darnell, a part-time manager at the Pickens airport. <br>
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The pilot was flying a four-seat Cessna-172 Skyhawk. Darnell said the pilot was taking his friend and the boy on a short tour of the area when the plane crashed. The boy was not the passenger's son. <br>
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The crash left debris along two acres of the wooded area.
