Three killed in Forsyth County plane crash

Three people died midday Monday when their single-engine plane crashed and burned in Forsyth County, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The Beechcraft A36 was headed from Sarasota, Fla., to Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said.

The pilot contacted air traffic control to say he was “a bit disoriented and was having trouble locating the airport,” he said.

The plane crashed at the Vulcan Materials East Forsyth Quarry off N.C. 66 near Horneytown, south of Kernersville, the Greensboro News & Record said.

The cause of the 12:12 p.m. crash was unknown, Knudson said at 6 p.m.

The Federal Aviation Administration was on the scene, he said. The NTSB will take over the investigation Tuesday and begin interviewing witnesses and air traffic controllers.

Kevin Baker, the airport’s executive director, said the pilot reported a problem to the tower but could not detail it before crashing, the paper said.

This story was originally published September 7, 2015 at 9:20 PM with the headline "Three killed in Forsyth County plane crash."