Several witnesses reported seeing smoke coming from the engine of a small plane that crashed in April near the Hall-Forsyth county line, killing one of three men onboard.
That's according to the National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report on the April 28 crash, which occurred while the plane was trying to make an emergency landing on Browns Bridge Road.
The two men who survived the crash told investigators they heard a loud "bang" and that the windshield became covered with oil. Several witnesses who were on the ground said "the plane's engine was sputtering, leaking fluid and trailing smoke."
The plane was owned by Flight School of Gwinnett, according to the report, and had left Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville about an hour before the crash. The occupants of the plane included a licensed pilot who was in training to upgrade his rating, an instructor and a student pilot at the flight school who was "observing" the flight. They were all from Gwinnett County.
The full NTSB report can be read here.
