Plane Entered Loop, Then Dove Into Ground

The pilot of a Skybolt aerobatic biplane was killed Sunday evening in Coweta County, GA when witnesses say his plane entered a loop, and then came straight down. The pilot had been performing aerobatics before the accident occurred.

"He did an inverted loop kind of right above the tree line," said witness Kelly Young to WXIA-11. "They'll scare you sometimes with the sound but that's just the way they do when they do those upside down loops but I knew it was low, and that he was flying low and I knew the sound was not cool."

The Coweta County Sheriff did not release the name of the man, who was confirmed dead at the crash scene. Authorities confirmed the plane (file photo of type, above) had taken off from Newnan-Coweta Airport (KCCO).

According to FAA records, the Skybolt, N78BJ, was registered to Lloyd Smith of nearby Sharpsburg, GA.

Investigators with the NTSB joined the FAA at the accident site Monday.

**   Report created 5/15/2006   Record 2
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IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 78BJ        Make/Model: EXP       Description: TAYLOR/SKYBOLT
  Date: 05/14/2006     Time: 2241

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: Fatal     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Destroyed

LOCATION
  City: SHARPSBURG   State: GA   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  ACFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, THE ONE PERSON ON BOARD WAS
  FATALLY INJURED, SHARPSBURG, GA

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   1
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   1     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: CCO 2240Z 27007G15KT 10SM CLR 22/11

OTHER DATA

  Departed:                             Dep Date:    Dep. Time:     
  Destination:                          Flt Plan:              Wx Briefing: 
  Last Radio Cont: 
  Last Clearance: 

  FAA FSDO: COLLEGE PARK, GA  (SO11)              Entry date: 05/15/2006

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov