For many years, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott’s private home in Georgia has been a peaceful place for his racing family. But on Sunday, August 9, a scary airplane emergency ruined that peace.
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Around noon, emergency teams rushed to 165 Mildred Elliott Road. A small private airplane crashed into the thick trees at Elliott Field. This is a private airstrip located right behind the racing legend’s house.
There were two men on board. Luckily, both men survived the scary crash, but they were badly hurt.
First responder radio traffic, as per Broadcastify, captured the scene as it unfolded, and the transmission was shared by accounts on social media.
“One small aircraft, completely destroyed on the ground. We’ve got one critical on the ground. One entrapped in the airplane, currently one out,” Lieutenant 8 reported on arrival.
Dawson County fire crews worked to pull the second man out of the wreckage.
A regular ground ambulance rushed one man to the hospital, while a medical helicopter airlifted the other man.
It was later confirmed that both passengers, middle-aged men, suffered multi-system trauma. A family member posted an update saying one of the men broke his jaw, but he remained awake while medical staff performed CT scans.
Thankfully, the Elliott family was safe. Bill Elliott was not on the plane, and neither was his son. Chase Elliott was far away in Newton, Iowa. He was busy driving his #9 Hendrick Motorsports car in the NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350 race that same weekend.
Bill was on the ground at his home when the crash happened. He spoke directly to local reporters. According to him, the plane lost its motor mid-flight and came straight down at the facility.
The Dawson County Sheriff’s Office placed the crash near State Route 183 at around noon. Fire Chief Troy Leist led the on-ground response. By mid-afternoon, the NTSB had taken over the investigation.
The location did not help matters. Elliott Field is boxed in by 40-foot Georgia pine trees, with a road crossing right at the end of the runway. Lose an engine over that terrain, and there is nowhere clean to put a plane down. Witnesses on Mildred Elliott Road heard the motor cut out, saw it go down, and called it in. The facility has no control tower, so there was no one else to make that call.
After the crash, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took over the scene. They officially identified the crashed plane as a Piper PA-32-300. This is a popular airplane with one engine.
The NTSB expects to release a full, early report in about 30 days to explain exactly why the engine failed.
Elliott Field, FAA identifier 09GE, is not a commercial airport. Bill Elliott built it himself about 40 years ago, right behind his house off Elliott Family Parkway. The airfield has been on the city of Dawsonville’s radar for a while. Local government has been pushing to buy the property from Elliott and turn it into a public general aviation airport. That conversation was already happening before Sunday.
As of Sunday afternoon, the NTSB investigation was underway. The full conditions of both men beyond the initial trauma reports had not been officially released.