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Pilot goes missing after Twiggs crash, found safe at home

"You are not just going to sit there and let the person leave," Diallo's son says.

A man whose small plane crashed in Twiggs County early Wednesday was later found safe at his home in Bibb County.

That's according to Col. James Faulk of the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office.

He said the Herbert Smart Airport reported that a small plane dropped off the radar around 4 a.m. Wednesday.

The sheriff's office was notified around 8 a.m. and began searching with the help of a Georgia State Patrol plane. They found the single-engine plane in woods off Georgia Kaolin Road, near the Wolf Creek Landfill.

Sheriff Darren Mitchum said deputies found tracks in the mud leading away from the crash and begin searching the area for the pilot.

Later Wednesday, they got a call from the pilot's stepmother, who said he was at home in Lizella.

Mitchum said he is Robert Buzzell, age 43.

The sheriff said Buzzell was not injured and he was alone in the plane.

"The pilot walked out," said Mitchum. "He was pretty lucky."

He said the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.

Buzzell could not be reached for comment.

Sheriff Mitchum could explain why Buzzell was flying in to the airport at 4 a.m. An airport employee , who would not give his full name, declined comment Wednesday.

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