
A plane that ran off a runway Monday morning, June 18, at 10 a.m. at DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK) crashed through a fence and stopped just feet from Dresden Road, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The two pilots and one of the two passengers aboard were taken to area hospitals with minor injuries, according to DeKalb County Fire & Rescue spokesman Norman Augustin.
According to the FAA, a Hawker Beechcraft 400 aircraft ran off the end of a runway during landing.
Aretha Walker, who was driving on Dresden Road, was just a few yards away when the plane went through the fence.
“It looked like he was trying to land,” Walker said. “I don’t know how it happened but it happened so fast.
“Next thing I knew he had come down and went right there,” Walker said, pointing at the site. “That fence really slowed him up a bit.”
Walker said that had it not been for the chain link fence and embankment, the plane “would have crossed over to where those buildings are. That would have blown up.”
The passengers “would have been dead,” Walker said. “And we would have been dead. It could have hit one of our cars. Really they’re lucky to be alive.”
Walker said she spotted the plane as it was coming down.
“I said, ‘Lord it looks like that plane’s too low,’” Walker said. “And I stopped real quick. I’m still shaking.”
The aircraft was arriving at PDK from Gadsden, Ala.
Emergency crews cleaned up 700 gallons of fuel that spilled inside the airport as a result of the accident, Augustin said. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA were still investigating the incident Monday afternoon, Augustin said.
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