Family of 5, including 2 children, killed in Georgia plane crash

Five members of a family who died in a Georgia plane crash were traveling to a funeral in Indiana, according to the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.

The Piper 31T twin-engine turbo prop airplane crashed in a heavily wooded area near Eatonton, Georgia on Friday afternoon, according to police.

Larry Ray Pruitt, 67, pilot and owner of aircraft, was killed along with his daughter Jody Rae Lamont, 43, and her husband Shawn Charles Lamont, 41. The Lamonts' children, 6-year-olds Jayce and Alice, were also killed in the crash.

The family had taken off from Williston, Florida and were en route to Newcastle, Indiana to attend a funeral.

Sheriff Howard R. Sills told NBC affiliate WXIA-TV that he was sitting at his office desk when he heard a loud explosion that he likened to a "hand grenade."

"Everyone around said, 'What was that?'" he said. "Obviously we had some thunder earlier and things like that and I knew it wasn't that.

Sills said he went outside to investigate and soon started to receive calls from residents reporting the crash. He said one person told him he "had seen the a plane on fire in the air." Other residents reported finding debris in their yards.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.