A man from Dahlonega has been identified as the victim of a fatal plane crash near the Dahlonega airport Saturday afternoon.
Lumpkin County Coroner Mark H. Cox said the victim was Craig John Gentry, 39, of Dahlonega.
The Lumpkin Country Sheriff's Office told AccessWDUN their officers responded to the incident for assistance.
AccessWDUN has reached out to the Lumpkin County Fire Department for more information.
Original story posted March 20, 2022, at 10:26 a.m.:
The pilot of a small plane was killed Saturday when the plane crashed about a mile short of the Dahlonega airport, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The NTSB has not named the pilot, who was the only person on the plane. But it said the plane was a Cessna 172H Skyhawk, registered to Blue Ridge Mountain Flyers, Inc., in Dahlonega.
According to the website Flightaware.com, the plane departed Athens-Ben Epps Airport at 6:17 p.m. for the short trip to Dahlonega. But the plane went down while on approach to Lumpkin County-Wimpys Airport on Camp Wahsega Road.
The NTSB has not said why it thinks the plane went down. No inclement weather was in the area at the time of the crash.
This is a developing story and will be updated as new information is released.
