ATLANTA — A small plane crashed into an Atlanta-area townhome Wednesday morning, killing at least one person, authorities said.

A second person who was on the plane was unaccounted for, DeKalb County Fire Capt. Dion Bentley told reporters.

The Piper PA-28 plane crashed shortly after taking off from DeKalb-Peachtree Airport outside Atlanta around 10:30 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a tweet.

Bentley said the plane crashed into a five-unit townhome and crews were having trouble accessing the wreckage. No one was home at the time and there were no injuries on the ground, he said.

A photo published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed a building with a large section of its wall and part of the roof knocked out.

The area was under foggy conditions Wednesday morning.

A resident, West Hutchinson, said he heard a plane struggling to gain altitude before it crashed into the townhome. Hutchinson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he was sitting on a back porch near the site of the crash. He said he heard a loud crack, and it was obvious the plane had crashed because there was complete silence afterward.

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