The student and instructor survived the wooded crash near Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport and were later reported in stable condition.
DALLAS, GA — A student pilot and flight instructor called 911 from their crashed single-engine plane Thursday night, giving dispatchers an approximate location that helped emergency crews find the two injured men in woods near Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport, authorities said.
The plane went down shortly before 8:06 p.m. Sept. 3 in a wooded area near Hulseytown Road in western Paulding County. The two occupants initially were taken to hospitals in critical condition. By Friday afternoon, the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office said both had stabilized and were expected to recover. Their names had not been publicly released.
Authorities identified the occupants as an 18-year-old student pilot and a 22-year-old flight instructor. Sheriff Ashley Henson said one of the men was able to contact 911 after the crash and provide a rough location. The call became an important part of the rescue because the aircraft had come down well inside a wooded area, away from the road.
Emergency crews were dispatched at about 8:06 p.m. and began searching the area within minutes. Deputies and firefighters located the wreckage roughly a quarter-mile into the woods. Both men were conscious and able to communicate when rescuers reached the aircraft, according to authorities. Firefighters helped remove them from the plane and carried them through the wooded terrain to waiting medical crews.
Henson, who went to the scene, said the survival of both occupants was the most important immediate development. He also assisted as responders moved the injured men uphill from the crash site. Paulding County Fire Rescue said crews rapidly searched the reported area and reached the wreckage within minutes of the initial dispatch.
The sheriff’s office said the student and instructor had been practicing takeoffs and landings before the crash. The aircraft was identified in reports from federal investigators as a Piper PA-28. The crash occurred east of Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport, a public general aviation airport in Dallas, about 30 miles west of Atlanta.
Investigators have not determined why the plane crashed. Early in the response, local authorities said they did not know whether the aircraft had been attempting to land or whether the crew had reported an emergency before it went down. Officials also cautioned against drawing conclusions from the position of the wreckage or other initial observations at the scene.
The National Transportation Safety Board opened an investigation and said it would examine the pilots, the aircraft and the operating environment surrounding the flight. Investigators are expected to review available flight-tracking information, air traffic control recordings, maintenance records and information about the pilots’ qualifications and recent flying experience as they work to reconstruct the flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration also was notified of the crash. Federal investigators typically gather evidence from the aircraft and scene before releasing preliminary findings, while a determination of probable cause can take substantially longer. The NTSB has asked witnesses and anyone with surveillance video or other information about the accident to provide that material to investigators.
The crash left several details unresolved, including what happened in the moments before the aircraft entered the trees. No cause had been announced as of Saturday. The latest public update from local authorities said the student pilot and instructor were stable and expected to recover while the federal investigation continued.
Author note: Last updated September 5, 2026.