The remnants of a deadly plane crash on Interstate 85 in Davidson County were pushed aside overnight so the road could reopen.
On Thursday morning, drivers will still able to see the wreckage, which has not yet been cleared so the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board can continue their investigation.
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New video from a viewer shows flames on the highway after the small aircraft crashed on I-85 near Hargrave Road while trying to take off from a nearby airport in Lexington around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Investigators say the plane hit a tractor trailer, which overturned.
"Apparently it was having some problem in takeoff, " said crash witness Donald Holt Sr. "My wife said, 'The plane is kinda low.' I said, 'Yes, it is.'"
The pilot of the twin-engine Beechcraft Barron plane, 43-year-old Raymond John Ackley, did not survive the crash. The driver of the tractor trailer was taken to the hospital.
"As soon as we got right over the highway, we saw the tail of the plane and we saw the tractor-trailer learning on its side and both were on fire," said Holt. "As we got a little further, we saw a bunch of smoke — white smoke and black smoke."
"The flames were coming. It was too hot [and] it was too dangerous to get close to it," said Holt.
Charred bits of the aircraft were spread out across three lanes of I-85 and the toppled tractor-trailer lay feet away. The plane also burned a black streak across I-85. The damage from the crash shut the interstate for hours and stalled traffic and drivers, including Benjamin Nelson.
"The median was on fire ... pieces of airplane were in the median. As I was coming through, the fire trucks had not come through yet and there were a lot of people at the side of the road trying to help," said Nelson.
All lanes of southbound I-85 were closed near Exit 88 because of the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board has taken over the investigation on what caused the plane to crash. NTSB will be looking into not only what caused the plane to crash, but the pilot's record and experience as they try to figure out what went wrong.