Gwinnett County firefighters were dispatched to the 1000 block of Old Athens Road at about 5:30 p.m. after the county's air traffic control tower reported a single-engine plane in distress. Crews arrived nine minutes later and found the aircraft down among trees, with both occupants trapped inside.

Rescuers worked to free the two men. One died at the scene; the other was taken to a local hospital. Firefighters reported no active fire when they reached the wreckage.

The plane, described by the National Transportation Safety Board as a Velocity-173 FG, had departed Briscoe Field roughly 90 minutes before the crash. As the pilot attempted to return to the airport, he reported engine trouble, according to investigators.

Natoria Hopgood, who lives nearby, said she heard an unusual sound and then noticed a strong odor. "I heard it like boom. It was like a distant boom," she said. "It smelled like something was burning badly. It was hurting my nose a lot."

The Gwinnett County Medical Examiner's Office responded once the Federal Aviation Administration cleared the scene and will determine the cause of death. The FAA and the NTSB have been notified, and the NTSB is leading the investigation into what brought the plane down. Gwinnett County police will guard the wreckage while the inquiry continues.

The crash adds to a persistent safety concern for neighborhoods that sit in the flight paths of the county's general aviation airports. Briscoe Field, a publicly owned airfield in Lawrenceville, handles a steady volume of small-plane traffic, and accidents involving single-engine aircraft on approach or departure can put people on the ground at risk even when they occur in wooded or open land.

Federal investigators typically take months to issue a preliminary report and longer to determine a probable cause. Anyone with information about the flight is asked to contact the NTSB.