Man dies in Winder plane crash

By Sheri Kasprzak
sheri.kasprzak@gwinnettdailypost.com

A man was killed Saturday when his private plane crashed on Highway 82 in Winder soon after takeoff from the Barrow County Airport.

WINDER — A plane crash Saturday afternoon has left an Auburn man dead and federal investigators searching for clues.
A twin-engine Beachcraft Baron plane went down around 2:21 p.m. Saturday afternoon, Maj. Murray Kogod, spokesman for the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office said.
Stephen Mark Miller, 52, of Auburn, perished in the crash, which occurred on Ga. Highway 82 just outside of Winder, Kogod said. Miller had taken off from Winder-Barrow Airport, just a block away from Ga. 82 when the plane crashed, striking trees and clipping a utility pole, said Kogod.
On the scene, debris littered the roadway and the entire front of the plane was disintegrated.
Witnesses at the scene said they heard a crash and then two explosions, the second louder than the first.
Max Churchill, who lives down the street from the crash site, said he heard a loud crash and assumed it was a car accident, as the road is notorious for automobile accidents.
“Someone came up and beat on the door and said there was a plane crash,” Churchill said.
Churchill called the police, though he wasn’t sure if he was the first to alert authorities.
“I came outside and saw the plane burning, the road burning, the grass burning,” Churchill said. “They wouldn’t let anyone down there, so I watched it. There was one small explosion and then a big explosion.”
The Barrow County Sheriff’s Office, the Barrow fire department and the county’s emergency medical service responded to the crash and the National Transportation Safety Board also came to the scene to investigate.
The crash left sections of Ga. 82 closed, possibly through today, as crews work to clean up the debris and federal officials investigate the cause of the accident, said Corky Smith with the NTSB.