August 18, 2003

 ROME, Ga. (AP) -- A plane crash in a Floyd County pasture killed two Atlanta-area men employed by Delta Air Lines, authorities said. Claude Inman Osteen Jr., 51, of Smyrna, and Christopher Yates, 41, of Newnan, were killed in the crash on Sunday, authorities said.

 The men were flying in a single-engine plane. Emergency officials searched for the downed plane at about 6:45 p.m. Sunday after they received several calls to 911 reporting a fire in the eastern part of the county, said Fire Department Capt. David Oswalt.

 The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. Authorities said they didn't know what the plane was doing in the area, and there was no record of where it departed from. Officials at Richard B. Russell Regional Airport said they were not aware of any planes missing from their airport.

 A spokesman from Cartersville Airport said one plane was missing from the airport but could not confirm that it was the plane that crashed in Floyd County. The bodies were transported from the crash scene by 10:30 p.m. Sunday and were taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Decatur for autopsies, said Floyd County Coroner Barry Henderson.

 Sunday's crash followed a number of air accidents reported in northwest Georgia. On Feb. 22, a single-engine Cessna nose-dived into a clump of trees near a golf course in Floyd County, but neither of the two passengers was injured.

 On April 10, a Cherokee County pilot died when he crashed on the side of foggy Pine Log Mountain.

 On May 5, two people were killed when a 1974 Piper Saratoga crashed on Johns Mountain in Gordon County, just northeast of Floyd County.

 A day later, a Comair jet -- with 48 passengers and three crew members -- made an emergency landing at the Russell Regional Airport after a fire on board.