Flight Instructor, 29, and Teen, Who Dreamed of Becoming a Pilot, Die After Small Plane Crashes and Bursts into Flames

YOU NEED TO KNOW

• A flight instructor and a 17-year-old boy died in a small plane crash in Mississippi on January 18.

• Officials said the plane hit a tree and caught fire shortly after landing.

• The priest told a local media outlet that the teenager dreamed of becoming a pilot

A flight instructor and a 17-year-old boy were killed in Mississippi over the weekend when their small plane crashed into a tree near an airport in Mississippi.

On Sunday, January 18, around 5 p.m. local time, 29-year-old Wesley Bolden and 17-year-old Jordan Hall were flying a small plane when it crashed in a wooded area east of the Holly Springs-Marshall County Airport in Holly Springs. CBS affiliate WREG, FOX affiliate WHBQ And NBC affiliate WMC-TV reported.

“It was in a very heavily forested area. It appears the plane first hit a large pine tree and from there it went back down to the ground and burst into flames,” Marshall County Sheriff Kenny Dickerson told WMC-TV. He told WHBQ they believe the crash occurred shortly after the plane touched down.

According to sources, both people on the plane were pronounced dead at the scene. It’s unclear who was piloting the single-engine, fixed-wing Piper Cherokee at the time of the crash, WREG reported.

An investigation is ongoing, and the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

The tragic incident left the people of the region devastated. Flight instructor Bolden had recently opened his own flight school. According to the press, his fiancee and young daughter survived.

The sheriff knew Bolden and grieves his death along with the rest of the community.

“You couldn’t find better people,” Dickerson told WHBQ about the Bolden family. “Just first-class, first-class people.”

After the fatal accident, those who knew the young man best share their sweet memories.

“My baby died doing what he loved,” Hall’s mother wrote, according to the report. “We spent Sunday going to church with his girlfriend and he left to drop her off before going to flying lessons. This is the last time I see my baby and I will, but I’m at peace.”

The teenager’s pastor, Freddie Thomas, said: WHBQ He said he dreamed of becoming a pilot and was inspired by the African American aviators who flew during World War II. Hall even wore a pilot uniform while attending a service one day during Black History Month at his church in South Memphis, Tenn.

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“Right in the heart of South Memphis, the young men here looked to Jordan not as a mentor, but as someone to aspire to,” Thomas told the outlet. “An extremely inspiring young man, full of aspirations, full of love for God, gentle as a lamb. He would do anything for you.”

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