Aircraft Impacted Wooded Area Late Friday Night

A Cessna 182 enroute from Slidell to Marksville, MS went down in a heavily wooded area just before midnight Friday, fatally injuring all three persons aboard.

Pilot Glen Johnson, 39, of Gautier, and his wife Tabitha Dolbare, 39 and son Nelson Dolbare, 13 of Van Cleave were heading to Marksville to visit friends when controllers lost radar contact with the plane at about 11:50 pm, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig said.

Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office was soon flooded with calls. "They said they thought it was a plane crash. They thought they heard an engine sputtering," Sheriff's Office spokesman Jason Ard said. Deputies located the crash scene about two hours later with the help of a helicopter equipped a searchlight, guiding rescue personnel through a densely wooded area.

Debbie Gill, a neighbor and acquaintance of Johnson's for 25 years, spoke fondly of the family. "Glyn was a big talker. He never met a stranger. He liked to talk. He always had a story to tell. It wasn't unusual for Glyn to just get in his airplane and fly around. He just loves to fly, loves airplanes and actually, he was building an airplane."

"Tabitha and Nelson were very, very sweet," Gill added. "The little boy was as sweet as could be. He was always out there riding his bike and playing ball."

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports FAA supervisor Jude Sellers said investigators have already formed a theory about the cause of the crash, but declined to give any details prior to the release of the official NTSB preliminary report.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov