FAA Flight Standards District Office: FAA Atlanta FSDO-11
Date: 06-JUL-16
Time: 06:00:00Z
Regis#: N321HB
Aircraft Make: CIRRUS
Aircraft Model: SR22
Event Type: Incident
Highest Injury: None
Damage: Unknown
Flight Phase: LANDING (LDG)
City: MACON
State: Georgia
AIRCRAFT FORCE LANDED WITH DEPLOYED PARACHUTE AT A LANDFILL, NEAR MACON, GEORGIA.
A Bibb County man’s plane ran out of fuel before it went down in Twiggs County Wednesday.
“The plane was slap out of fuel,” Twiggs County Sheriff Darren Mitchum said.
Mitchum was first alerted about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday after a call from Robins Air Force Base reporting that a plane went off radar about 3 a.m. Wednesday.
A signal from the Cirrus SR22 indicated it was down near the Wolf Creek Landfill, and Mitchum and deputies began searching there, about a mile off U.S. 80.
One deputy spotted what he thought was a wing sticking up from the trees, and a Georgia State Patrol helicopter was brought in to locate the wreckage.
Mitchum and deputies hiked about a mile into the woods and found the plane, but no pilot.
“I found a set of shoe tracks leading out. It was real muddy,” Mitchum said.
A relative of pilot Robert Buzzell notified the sheriff’s office that he was safe at home in Lizella.
“He wasn’t injured, but we had an ambulance check him out anyway,” Mitchum said.
Buzzell returned to the crash site with officers and met with investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
“He did tell them ... that he had been up for three or four days and he was recovering from some sort of addiction,” Mitchum said.
No charges were initially filed against Buzzell, he said.
The aircraft was equipped with a parachute for emergency landings, and that chute was deployed, according to the FAA’s preliminary accident report.
Investigators removed the aircraft from the woods and will examine it further at the NTSB salvage yard in Griffin.
Read more here: http://www.macon.com
The Bibb County man whose plane crashed early Wednesday in Twiggs County told investigators that he'd been awake for four or five days before the accident.
Robert Buzzell also said "he had been recovering from a heroin episode or some complication from an addiction," according to an incident report from the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office.
According to the sheriff's office, Buzzell's single-engine plane crashed before 4 a.m. Wednesday in woods near the Wolf Creek landfill.
He was apparently headed for the Macon Downtown Airport in East Macon.
Buzzell's father, Sam Buzzell, didn't want to speak to 13WMAZ on camera on Thursday, but did say that his son was recovering and that everything that happened was just "setting in."
Sam Buzzell also said that his son's wife, Kate Buzzell, was watching her husband's plane on radar until she saw it disappear.
"I mean, can you imagine?" Sam Buzzell said.
Deputies found the plane empty and saw tracks headed away from the wreck, Sheriff Darren Mitchum told 13WMAZ.
Several hours later, they located Buzzell at his home in Lizella, about 35 miles away.
His plane remains in the woods off Landfill Road, and FAA investigators are reportedly looking into the crash.
According to online records, his plane, a Cirrus SR22, is owned by a Delaware company. Online flight records show that he took off around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday from New Haven, Connecticut and flew non-stop to Macon.
Story and video: http://www.13wmaz.com
MACON, Ga. -- A Bibb County man survived a crash Wednesday after his small plane went down in Twiggs County.
According to Col. James Faulk of the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office, 43-year-old Robert Buzzell's plane dropped off of the radar at Herbert Smart Airport at around 4 a.m. Wednesday. The crash was reported to the sheriff's office at around 8 a.m.
With help from a Georgia State Patrol plane, officials found the single-engine plane in the woods near the Wolf Creek Landfill off of Georgia Kaolin Road but did not find Buzzell.
Buzzell's stepmother called the sheriff's office later Wednesday to report that he was at home in Lizella. He was not injured.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
Original article can be found here: http://wgxa.tv
A man whose small plane crashed in Twiggs County early Wednesday was later found safe at his home in Bibb County.
That's according to Col. James Faulk of the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office.
He said the Herbert Smart Airport reported that a small plane dropped off the radar around 4 a.m. Wednesday.
The sheriff's office was notified around 8 a.m. and began searching with the help of a Georgia State Patrol plane. They found the single-engine plane in woods off Georgia Kaolin Road, near the Wolf Creek Landfill.
Sheriff Darren Mitchum said deputies found tracks in the mud leading away from the crash and begin searching the area for the pilot.
Later Wednesday, they got a call from the pilot's stepmother, who said he was at home in Lizella.
Mitchum said he is Robert Buzzell, age 43.
The sheriff said Buzzell was not injured and he was alone in the plane.
"The pilot walked out," said Mitchum. "He was pretty lucky."
He said the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.
Buzzell could not be reached for comment.
Sheriff Mitchum could explain why Buzzell was flying in to the airport at 4 a.m. An airport employee , who would not give his full name, declined comment Wednesday.
Original article can be found here: http://www.13wmaz.com
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