ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. – A pilot and a student have died in a small-plane crash in mountainous terrain in East Tennessee.
Kathleen Bergen of the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlanta said the single-engine Cessna 206 crashed about 3:15 p.m. EDT in Carter County some eight miles south of the Elizabethton airport in the Tiger Creek section of Roan Mountain near the North Carolina border.
Sheriff Chris Mathes told the Johnson City Press late Thursday that the two killed were 70-year-old pilot Ron Royce of Elizabethton and his 38-year-old student, Adam West of Wisconsin.
It was not immediately known where the plane was headed. Witnesses said the identification numbers were burned off the tail section. Bergen said the plane was registered to Focus Aviation in Elizabethton.
Officials said a homeowner helped lead rescue personnel to the site, in the southern part of the county some 15 miles from U.S. Highway 19E.
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