Plane Crash Kills Ex-Georgia Lawmaker, Wife, Pilot
AUGUSTA, Ga. — A former state senator and his wife died Friday when their single-engine plane crashed during takeoff on a flight to Maine, where the couple had a vacation home.
The Piper Malibu Mirage carrying Thomas Allgood Sr. and his wife, Thelma, crashed outside Daniel Field in Augusta, where they lived. Pilot Steve Patterson also was killed.
Thomas Allgood, 71, was an attorney and a member of the Board of Regents, which governs the state’s public colleges and universities.
Witnesses said the six-seat plane struggled for altitude after taking off about 7:45 a.m.
It clipped a utility pole and then plowed into a bus stop shelter, exploding when it hit the ground, said Beach Scott, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.
A burning section of the plane skidded into a brick retaining wall near municipal water storage tanks. The plane narrowly missed traffic on a four-lane thoroughfare, witnesses said.
Allgood, a Democrat, was elected to the Georgia Senate in 1976, became majority leader in 1981 and served until he retired in 1991.
An Augusta native, Allgood graduated from the former Augusta College and earned two law degrees from Emory University.
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