need to know
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On January 18, a small plane crash occurred in Mississippi, killing a flight instructor and a 17-year-old boy.
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Officials said the plane hit a tree shortly after landing and burst into flames
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His pastor told local media the teen dreamed of becoming a pilot
A flight instructor and a 17-year-old boy were killed over the weekend when their small plane crashed into a tree near a Mississippi airport.
According to reports from CBS’s WREG, Fox’s WHBQ and NBC’s WMC-TV, at around 5 pm local time on Sunday, January 18, 29-year-old Wesley Bolden and 17-year-old Jordan Hall were piloting a small plane that crashed in a wooded area east of the Holly Springs Marshall County Airport in Holly Springs.
Marshall County Sheriff Kenny Dickerson told WMC-TV, “The plane was in a very densely wooded area. It appears the plane first hit a large pine tree and from there it continued to fall to the ground and burst into flames again.” He told WHBQ they believe the crash occurred shortly after the plane landed.
According to media reports, both passengers on the plane were pronounced dead at the scene. It was unclear who was piloting the single-engine fixed-wing Piper Cherokee at the time of the crash, WREG reported.
The 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 request for comment.
The tragic incident has shocked the local community. Bolden is a flight instructor and recently opened his own flight school. He is survived by his fiancée and young daughter, the outlet reported.
The Sheriff knew Bolden and joins the rest of the community in mourning his passing.
“You couldn’t ask for better people,” Dixon told WHBQ of the Bolden family. “They’re all top-notch, first-class people.”
Those who knew the teen best shared sweet memories after the fatal crash.
“My child died while doing something he loved,” Hall’s mother wrote in her tribute, according to the outlet. “We went to church with his girlfriend on Sunday and he left before going to flying lessons to drop her off. That was the last time I saw or will ever see my child, but I’m at peace.”
Wesley Bolden/Facebook
Wesley Bolden.
The teen’s pastor, Freddie Thomas, told WHBQ he dreamed of becoming a pilot and was inspired by the African-American pilots who flew during World War II. One day during Black History Month, Hall even wore his pilot’s uniform for a service at a church in South Memphis, Tennessee.
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Magnolia Memorial Funeral Home
Jordan Hall.
“Right in the heart of South Memphis, these young men here see Jordan not as a mentor, but as a person to aspire to,” Thomas told the media. “He was a very inspiring young man, full of ambition, full of God’s love and as gentle as a lamb. Would do anything for you.”
Read the original article on People
