A Georgia man has died after a small aircraft he was piloting plummeted to the ground near a popular lakeside resort.
Howard Lee Joe, 60, was killed when his single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashed in Buford, Georgia, and was set ablaze Thursday afternoon.
The plane erupted into flames after nosediving into a parking lot along Lanier Islands Parkway near Pine Cone Drive around 5.15pm.
Videos from the scene show the mangled body of the plane engulfed in flames as a thick billows of gray smoke rose into the sky.
The pilot was the only person aboard the aircraft, according to the Hall County Sheriff's Office.
Howard Lee Joe, 60, was killed when his single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashed in Buford, Georgia, and was set ablaze Thursday afternoon
The plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza, was scheduled to land near Gainesville, Georgia, just miles away from the scene of the accident
FlightAware's flight tracker shows that Joe had taken off about 15 minutes earlier from DeKalb-Peachtree Airport.
The plane was scheduled to land near Gainesville, Georgia, just miles away from the scene of the accident.
The plane crashed across the water from Lanier Legacy Islands Lodge, a 4-star hotel with 18 holes of golf, a marina and a poolside bar.
The lodge is billed as 'a warm Southern welcome' nestled in the Georgia wilderness, with activities like kayaking and motor boating.
Records show Joe had two other aircrafts previously licensed under his name, a 2006 Mooney M20R and a 1980 Beechcraft Bonanza F33A.
The Bonanza G36 he was piloting is a six-seater, single-engine aircraft that has been in continuous production since 1947, longer than any other aircraft in history.
It is unclear if the plane malfunctioned.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.
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