Federal investigators inspect the wreckage of a 1946 Ercoupe model 415C near Rome on Monday. William T. Martin

The victims of a plane crash in a hay field near Johnson Elementary School Sunday night have been identified as Christopher Yates, 41, of Newnan, and Claude Osteen Jr., 51, of Smyrna, said Floyd County Coroner Barry Henderson.

Osteen was a former team member of Tiger Flight, a flight formation team supporting the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles program, said Floyd County’s Roy “Gator” Stubbs, who is a current Tiger Flight member. The program was created to promote interest in aviation.

Stubbs said that news of the crash was “quite a shock. It was definitely a loss because (Osteen) was part of our family.”

Osteen left the team in May to pursue other things, Stubbs added.

Both men were flight attendants with Delta Air Lines, said John Kennedy, a spokesman for the airline. Osteen had worked with the company for 24 years and Yates for 12, he said.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our two colleagues,” said Kennedy. “Our thoughts and prayers go ou

The pictured 1946 Ercoupe model 415C is like the one that crashed near Rome on Sunday night. Contributed photo

t to their families and friends.”

Although the 1946 Ercoupe Model 415C was owned by Osteen, Henderson said officials weren’t certain who was piloting the craft. Their bodies were sent to the GBI crime lab in Decatur for autopsies.

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board, FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration visited the site Monday to conduct a preliminary investigation.

“What we’re basically just trying to do is document what we can on the plane while it’s undisturbed,” said Cathy Gagne, an air safety investigator for the NTSB.

Officials finished that phase of the investigation around 11 a.m. Monday, and Atlanta Air Recovery then arrived to collect the wreckage.

“It will be taken to an examination facility in Griffin, where everything will be looked at — the engine and the entire plane,” Gagne said.

Gagne said the plane’s flight path had not been determined Monday.

“We will talk to officials at the Rome and Cartersville airports and try to determine that information,” she said.

Officials at Rome’s Richard B. Russell Regional Airport said they had no information about the flight path.

A complete investigation will take between six months and a year to complete, Gagne said.

“When we’re dealing with a fatal accident and we have no survivors to tell us what was going on, it takes that long. We have to look at everything,” she said.

A preliminary report could be available within a few days on the NTSB Web site at www.ntsb.gov.

Emergency officials began searching for a downed aircraft about 6:45 p.m. Sunday after Rome-Floyd 911 operators received several calls about an airplane possibly on fire over Brewer Road.

Just after 8 p.m., the aircraft was found crashed off Collins Road in the eastern part of the county.

Bradley Kerce, who lives nearby, said he spotted the plane just before it went down.

“He was coming back from Rome. I looked up one time, and the next time I looked up the engine sort of died,” he said.

He added that the pilot started the engine back up, made a left turn and began to descend.

“I knew he was going down. When he rpm’d it back up, he must not have had enough power to keep it going like he wanted it,” he said.

Kerce began searching for the plane along with his wife, Cathy, and fellow neighbor Mark Grogan.

Kerce said he was standing on a small knoll overlooking area pastures when he spotted something unusual in a distant hay field.

“I thought it was a pile of rocks or something. I didn’t think about it being the plane, because there was no smoke or fire,” he said.

The three friends then found the wreckage.

“Brad’s wife called 911 on her cell phone,” said Grogan. “Probably within five minutes, rescue arrived. The fire department, the police and ambulances came out. The coroner came out too. They were here until about 11:30 p.m.”