MOUNT AIRY, N.C. - Federal investigators say it could be days before they make preliminary determinations about what caused a private plane to crash while trying to land at the Mount Airy, N.C., airport, killing six Georgia men.
The crash killed all six aboard. Investigators recovered the plane's voice recorder from the wreckage of the King Air C-90-A.
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Todd Gunther says investigators did not believe inflight fire or mechanical control failure caused the crash.
Six men aboard the plane were headed to a hunting trip in Virginia when the plane crashed.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown says the aircraft appeared to come in to land too high and veered off to come back when it crashed.
Investigators said the plane left the Polk County airport at 10:24 a.m.
John Shelton, Surry County's director of emergency services, identified the six victims as 46-year-old Hal Echols, 46-year-old Steve Simpson,; 49-year-old Robert Butler; 46-year-old Tony Gunther; 52-year-old Frank Ruggiero; and 50-year-old John Wesley Rakestraw, who was piloting the plane when it took off.
The Georgia governor's office says Rakestraw, Simpson and Echols were prominent Georgia Republicans.
Saturday
August 23rd, 2025
3:04PM
