A plane crashes into an Atlanta area apartment complex, killing two

Two people died Wednesday when a small plane crashed into an apartment building off Interstate 85 in an Atlanta suburb, officials said.

The aircraft, a Piper PA-28, crashed about 10:30 a.m. ET, after taking off from nearby DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.

DeKalb County Fire Rescue said two people died. The county said there were no confirmed injuries among those at the complex.

Photos from the crash scene near Chamblee showed a two-story townhome building missing a large swath of its brick facade. There is also roof damage. Atlanta Journal-Constitution photojournalist John Spink tweeted the images.

Only one car was parked in the immediate vicinity of the building.

The fire marshal and DeKalb County building inspectors declared six units of Clairmont Hills Townhomes, where the plane crashed, unsafe until further notice.

A Piper PA-28 is a line of single-engine airplane with either two or four seats. There are more than two dozen variants of the model.

The airport is Georgia’s second-busiest and averages 230,000 takeoffs and landings a year, its website states.

It is considered a “reliever airport,” designed to handle smaller aircraft and alleviate congestion at a major airport — in this case, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest.