A Cessna 120, similar to the one in this photograph, crashed Saturday in Brooks County, killing one person.

A plane that left the 44th Annual Thomasville Fly-In Saturday crashed in Brooks County, local officials said. There was one fatality.

Irv NeSmith, fly-in chairman and president of Thomasville Aviation Club, said the plane was a Cessna 120 and carried two passengers. He said the plane was headed to Bell, Fla., and crashed near Dixie in Brooks County.

“We’re very sorry this happened,” NeSmith said. “We feel for them and their families.”

Thomas County Fire/Rescue Chief Chris Jones said a call that reported an airplane had gone down was dispatched to local first responder departments.

“The caller said he was in a field and thought he was around the Georgia/Florida line,” he said. “That was all the details we had.”

Through the collaborative work of area dispatch centers it was narrowed down that the plane was in Brooks County, Jones said. From there, authorities were able to trace the call to the nearest cell phone tower and estimate the distance to its origin.

Jones, with another individual, then went to Brooks County to assist in the response effort.

They began looking for the site and contacted the Thomasville Regional Airport.

The chief said Airport Manager Mike Woodham informed him there was a civilian airplane from the airport in the area trying to locate the site.

“We coordinated our efforts and the pilot located the plane,” Jones said. “It was in a wooded area on the edge of a field.”

The names of the person killed and of the second passenger, who was reportedly injured, were not known at press time.

NeSmith said, until now, there has never been a plane crash or a fatality during the Thomasville Fly-In.

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