Atlanta Area/Paulding Airport Plane Down - Two Critical

[WDD]

Around 8:00 Thursday Sept 3 seems a CFI and an 18 year old student went down in a wooded area not too far from the airport after taking off. Both survived, critical condition. Flight school is not sure what happened yet.

Small plane crashes near Paulding County airport, leaving flight student and instructor critically injured​

By CBS News Atlanta Digital Team
September 4, 2026 / 7:11 AM EDT / CBS Atlanta

An 18-year-old flight student and his 22-year-old instructor survived a small-plane crash in Paulding County, then helped rescuers locate them by calling 911 from the wreckage, authorities said.

The single-engine plane went down shortly before 8:06 p.m. Thursday in a wooded area off Hulseytown Road, east of Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport, according to the Paulding County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies and firefighters arrived around 8:09 p.m. and found the plane approximately a quarter-mile into the woods. Both men were removed from the aircraft and taken to area hospitals in critical condition.

"I think probably the most important thing to talk about right now is the fact that we've got two individuals who were in the plane at the time of the crash, and they are both alive," Paulding County Sheriff Ashley Henson said during a news conference.

Henson said the men were conscious and speaking when rescuers reached them.

 

[Kenny Phillips]

Not a lot of options if you lose power in the climb out; elevation changes of ~350' in the pattern on the south side, where it appears they were doing a bunch of circuits.

 

[kyleb]

Not a lot of options if you lose power in the climb out; elevation changes of ~350' in the pattern on the south side, where it appears they were doing a bunch of circuits.

Lots of trees and no fields in the airport's vicinity. Its a place where I keep the pattern tight.

 

[bonefishpete]

I consider flight training if you are headed to the airlines the most dangerous flying you’ll ever do. For us non commercial piston pilots it never ends. It is what it is.

 

[WDD]

I noticed, thankfully, there was no fire.