Doctor identified as lone death in Harlan County plane crash
A doctor who would fly in to see patients in southeastern Kentucky died Thursday morning in a plane crash in Harlan County.
The 55-year-old David Sanford, of Knoxville, Tennessee, was the only death in the crash, said Philip Bianchi, the Harlan County coroner. Sanford would routinely fly into Harlan and Middlesboro to see patients, he added.
Sanford was previously from Middlesboro, WYMT reported. A website bearing Sanford’s name described him as an opthalmologist who grew up in Middlesboro and began a private practice in his hometown in 1997.
The crash happened around 10 a.m. Thursday just south of the Tucker-Guthrie Memorial Airport, state police said. Sanford was flying a Beechcraft Bonanza. In a tweet Thusday, the National Transportation and Safety Board confirmed that they were investigating the accident.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the family of the individual that was killed,” Dan Mosley, the Harlan County judge-executive, wrote on Facebook. “This is a sad day in our community.”
Mosley added that the crash was the first fatality at the airport that he was aware of and that the Federal Aviation Administration was also investigating.
This is a developing story and may be updated.