Harvey Cleveland, 60, of Peculiar, Missouri, was the pilot who died when a small, single-engine, “experimental” plane crashed in the edge of a field around 3 p.m. Wednesday shortly after taking off from the Statesboro Bulloch County Airport, according to Bulloch County Coroner Chuck Francis.

Local officials said Cleveland was believed to have been making a test flight or delivery trip of the plane. His identity, unknown the first day, was released by Francis late Thursday afternoon.

The crash occurred in an area off Georgia Highway 24 not far from its intersection with Five Chop Road. It was within sight from another road in that vicinity, Sand Spur Road, but it is a private road, said Capt. Todd Hutchens of the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office.

“What we understand is the pilot was taking a test flight, was test-flighting this single-engine, single-person plane, and unfortunately the plane went down in the edge of a field, and the pilot actually was killed in the crash,” Hutchens said Wednesday evening.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration arrived Thursday, and the Sheriff’s Office turned the crash site with the wreckage of the very small plane over to them.

“We are going to be securing this area until the FAA and the NTSB show up,” Hutchens had said.

The site appeared to be a little over two miles straight-line distance from the airport, but several miles farther by road.

FAA posts notice

By Thursday morning the FAA had posted a preliminary “accident and incident” notification on its website, at www.asias.faa.gov. It states the aircraft type as “experimental” and the model as an Airshark. The FAA’s initial description of the incident states, “Aircraft crashed under unknown circumstances in a field, Statesboro, GA.”

“Experimental” is a designation applied to aircraft built as individual projects, often by hobbyists, and issued a special airworthiness certificate by the FAA. The FAA’s registry for the “N” number describes the plane as “amateur” built, and lists a different builder and owner, neither of whom was Harvey Cleveland.

The plane’s activity type at the time was listed by the FAA as “personal” and the flight phase in which the crash occurred as “takeoff.” The pilot fatality was noted.

Although the plane was severely damaged on impact, and noted as “destroyed” by the FAA, there was no fire. In addition to sheriff’s personnel, units from the Bulloch County Fire Department and Emergency Medical Service had responded to the call.

The FAA notice listed a later time, which may be when the agency was notified. But the tri-county 911 system hosted by Bulloch County had received an automated crash notification – possibly from the plane itself – at 2:54:11 p.m. Wednesday, said 911 Director Kelly Barnard.

The body would be transferred to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation lab for autopsy, with a report to go to federal investigators, Francis said.