“It was just brutal. You couldn’t recognize anybody,” a family friend recalled of the crash

NEED TO KNOW

• Two brothers who were killed after their small plane crashed into a Tennessee cornfield have since been named
• The Warren County Sheriff’s Department identified the brothers as Brian Stuart Ramsey, 69, and Keith Warren Ramsey, 65
• While records show that the plane was registered to Brian, investigators are unsure which brother was flying the plane at the time of the crash

Authorities have identified the two brothers who died after their plane crashed into a Tennessee cornfield. 

On Wednesday, June 17, two individuals were pronounced dead soon after their aircraft crashed into a cornfield near the Morrison Industrial Park, the Warren County Sheriff's Department shared on social media.

They have since been identified as Brian Stuart Ramsey, 69, and Keith Warren Ramsey, 65, per WSMV and the Main Street Journal. 

“The preliminary investigation indicates the aircraft departed from a private airstrip in the Viola community,” officials wrote on Facebook after the incident. “Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft appears to have struck a tree, causing damage. The pilot subsequently attempted to reach the Warren County Memorial Airport; however, the aircraft was unable to do so and ultimately crashed.”

The brothers had only gotten around eight miles away from their local airport before the tragic crash, a spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed during a press conference, per WKRN News 2. 

The NTSB also said that, as seen in videos of the plane taking off, the aircraft appeared to have “made contact with something when it was departing from that small air strip.”

“In the video, you can see what appears to be something leaving the airplane, and we were able to confirm that with what we saw on scene,” the NTSB spokesperson added.

Following the deaths of Brian and Keith, George Saxton, a family friend who met the brothers when they first moved to Viola, told WSMV that their home has a private airport landing strip, from where their Cessna 177RG departed. 

“It was just brutal. You couldn't recognize anybody,” he said of the incident, noting that his son was one of the first people on scene to help on the windy day. “It was a bad time to be flying. I mean, we had gusts of 18 to 25 and even 30 [mph] at times. I don't know why they kept on.”

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While records show that the plane was registered to Brian, per WSMV, investigators are unsure which brother was flying the aircraft at the time of the incident. 

Warren County Commissioner Blaine Wilcher later told the outlet that he witnessed the crash while he was eating lunch outside. 

“I heard something, sounded similar to a lawn mower, but it didn't sound like it was running exactly right,” he said. “So I kept listening for it. Finally, I looked up, and there was a plane basically coming straight down. It took me a few seconds to realize that I'd probably seen a plane crash, and at that point I called 911.”

“It sounded kind of like it was laboring a little bit and maybe that was someone trying to correct something, I don't know,” Wilcher added. “But other than a few times that it seemed like the nose tried to come up a little, it pretty much went straight down.”

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