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FAA investigating plane crash

Joshua Brown

AMERICUS — A private plane that crashed at Souther Field Airport Saturday evening killed three Alabama residents, officials said Monday.

Ryan Jones, of Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Manley Garrison, of Alabaster, Ala.; and pilot Robert King, of Hoover, Ala., died after the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza “failed to make altitude” while taking off at about 6:45 p.m. Saturday, Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Brett Murray said Monday.

Murray said officials with the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration were investigating the accident and could take several months before completing the investigation.

Preliminary findings, however, indicate that neither alcohol nor the weather were factors in the accident, he said.

The plane crashed on a taxi lane at the airport, he said.

“They are looking if there was a mechanical problem, pilot error or lack of attention to detail that may have led to a problem (causing the crash),” he said.

The three men were friends attending a remote controlled aircraft hobby show in Americus, he said. Autopsies were scheduled to be completed Monday, though Murray did not know the results by mid afternoon.

The plane was privately owned, but Murray would not say who it was registered to because of the investigation’s active status.

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