A firefighter hoses a burning aircraft in Whitfield County, Ga., on Saturday. The pilot, Chattanooga businessman Donald Holbrook, died when his Piper PA-31 Navajo crashed soon after takeoff from Dalton Municipal Airport.
Contributed photo by Ernesto LuaMap
Plane crash
DALTON, Ga. — The pilot who was killed Saturday when his plane crashed and burned near the Dalton airport was Donald Lee Holbrook, 52, of Chattanooga, according to Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood.
Holbrook was a drag-racer who owned Holbrook Performance Parts Inc. The firm, located on Airways Boulevard, is a parts supplier for nitro and alcohol racers, according to the company website.
The twin engine Piper PA-31 Navajo crashed moments after taking off about 4:15 p.m. from the Dalton Municipal Airport.
Ernesto Lua and his cousin Juan Capistran were preparing for a family barbecue at the backyard of their Magnolia Grove subdivision home near the airport when a sputtering roar caused them to look up.
A twin-engine aluminum plane, about 200 feet off the ground, swept over a house a few hundred yards away and then right over the roof of Lua’s two-story home.