Dashcam video shows plane crashing on I-285

CHAMBLEE, Ga. — Dashcam video from a Chamblee police cruiser shows what are likely the final images of a small plane that crashed on Interstate 285 north of Atlanta earlier this month.

In the video, released late Friday, the plane can be seen flying low across the view as the police cruiser is facing northward along Peachtree Industrial Boulevard at a stop light. The plane disappears from view, followed by a plume of thick, black smoke as it crashes on the Perimeter highway.

The cruiser speeds toward the crash and up the wrong way on the cloverleaf off-ramp onto the interstate, where the flaming wreckage was.

Four people — Greg Byrd, his two sons, Phillip and Christopher, along with Christopher's fiancée Jackie Kulzer — were killed when the single-engine Piper PA-32 aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from DeKalb-Peachtree Airport on May 8.

The four were on their way to Oxford, Miss., for ceremonies at Ole Miss, where another of Byrd's sons was graduating. A family dog was also on board the plane and died in the tragedy.

While the National Transportation Safety Board has released a preliminary report on the crash, a more complete investigation into the cause of what happened could take up to a year or more for federal authorities to complete.