A married dad was killed when his small plane crashed in a ritzy Georgia neighborhood — with shocking images showing it in flames just feet from a mansion.
Jason McKenzie, 45, died when his single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza A36 crashed on the front lawn of a sprawling home in Augusta — with first responders praising him for appearing to have maneuvered it to avoid hitting homes, WRDW reported.
The broken plane burst into flames just feet from the home, amazingly without injuring anyone on the ground.
“I think that was a miracle,” neighbor Lisa Lewis said. “I think the Lord protected everyone else.”
McKenzie, the associate director of philanthropy at Augusta University, leaves behind a wife and young son, WRDW said.
He had just taken off from nearby Daniel Field Airport on his way to Connecticut and had made it to 625 feet before his plane plummeted to the ground, according to the report.
First responders credited McKenzie with maneuvering his plane in order to avoid causing more injuries on the ground.
“It’s very fortunate that this airplane didn’t hit a house,” National Transportation Safety Board investigator Ralph Hicks told WRDW.
The left wingtip from the plane remained stuck in a tree for several hours before firefighters were able to remove it around 5 p.m., the outlet added.
Lewis, the neighbor, said she was waking her son up for school when she heard the plane go down.
“We hear planes all the time because we live close to Daniel Field, but this time it was way louder than normal, and it got louder and louder and it just sounded like it was right outside the window,” she told WRDW.
“A few seconds later, you kind of heard some sort of rustling kind of crash and then a loud banging pop sound.”
McKenzie was headed to New Haven, Conn., at the time of the crash.
The crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration told the outlet.
