On August 13, a small aircraft met with a tragic accident after hitting a power line and subsequently crashing into Lake Hickory in North Carolina. The unfortunate incident led to the death of two individuals.
The victims were identified as Jeffrey Jay Cooley, 63, from Granite Falls, and Brian Miller, 49, of Hickory. The crash took place around 11:30 am.
Following the incident, a power outage ensued, affecting over 10,000 customers. Sarah Killian, representing the city of Hickory, confirmed the outage. Local media covered the power disruption, but by early afternoon, Duke Energy had managed to restore power after rerouting.
The aircraft involved, a Scoda Aeronautica Super Petrel, had departed from Hickory Regional Airport with two passengers when the accident occurred.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are jointly investigating the crash to ascertain the exact cause.
Lake Hickory, covering an expanse of over 4,000 acres and frequented by residents of the city of Hickory and surrounding counties, witnessed a coordinated response from multiple agencies across Alexander, Caldwell, and Catawba counties following the crash.