Officials said a twin-engine plane crashed Friday afternoon as it tried to land amid low fog at a small airport in northwest North Carolina, killing all six people on board, including three prominent members of the Paulding County Republican Party.

The three Republicans killed in the crash were John Wesley Rakestraw, Steve Simpson and Hal Echols, the Governor’s office said.

Rakestraw owned the planed. He was the CEO of Blue Sky Airways, based out of Dallas, Georgia. He hosted a campaign fundraiser for Governor Perdue at his farm in 2006.

Governor Perdue appointed Rakestraw to the Board of Community Affairs in 2003. According to his bio for that position, he was the President and CEO of Raker Construction. He was an active member of the Paulding County Water and Sewer Board. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Paulding County Boys and Girls Club. He was appointed to the Georgia Technical Adult Education Board in 2001 by then-Governor Roy Barnes. He was named Paulding County’s 2001 Business Leader of the Year.

Rakestraw was married to Sharron Tibbits and has 3 sons, John, Josh and Jake.

Simpson was also a developer in Paulding County.

Echols was a Paulding County Commissioner. Friday, Paulding County Commission Chairman Jerry Shearin asked that flags at all Paulding County facilities be lowered to half-staff in honor of Echols.

The identities of the other three people killed in the crash were Robert Simpson, Tony Gunter and Frank Ruggiero.

Stephanie Conner, a Surry County, North Carolina emergency services shift supervisor, said investigators had confirmed there were no survivors. The Federal Aviation Administration said the flight originated at the Polk County-Cornelius Moore Field in Cedartown, Georgia.

Surry County officials said the King Air C90A crashed in a neighborhood near the Mount Airy airport around 11:30 a.m. The plane split in half after falling into a grassy area between two homes. Spokesman Warren Woodberry of the FAA said no one on the ground was hurt.

Listen to the 911 Calls Reporting the Crash

Woodberry said the plane was headed for Mount Airy. Kelvin Boyette, the Mount Airy airport manager, said the passengers were on their way to Primland, a hunting and golf resort in Meadows of Dan, Virginia, about 25 miles north of the airport.

Boyette said the plane was attempting to land when it missed on its approach and may have been trying to circle back for another attempt before it crashed.

According to FAA records, the plane is registered to Blue Sky Airways in Dallas, Georgia.

One of the men on board was identified by his cousin as John Rakestraw, a pilot who owned a construction company in Dallas with the same address listed on the plane's registration.

Ronald Rakestraw said, "I received a call earlier. I called my nephew to confirm it."

Ted Buckholtz lives near the crash. He told WFMY News 2 he was reading his newspaper in his basement when he heard the crash. He was one of the first two people to approach the wreckage to help the people inside. He said there wasn't anything they could do. They were "already gone."

Buckholtz told WFMY-TV's Jay Rickerts during a phone interview that it looked like the plane was trying to land on the street but missed it. It did not catch fire after the crash.

Buckholtz says there was hunting gear inside the plane. Officials in Paulding Co. said the group was heading to North Carolina to go hunting.

Kelvin Boyette, the Mount Airy airport manager, said the passengers were on their way to Primland, a hunting and golf resort in Meadows of Dan, Va., about 25 miles north of the airport.

"The hunting resort van was actually waiting for them, and he was the only person who saw the plane come out of the clouds," Boyette said.

Boyette said the plane was attempting to land when it missed on its approach and may have been trying to circle back for another attempt before it crashed.

"There was a really low fog, it was raining a little bit and an occasional sleet pellet. But visibility was more than a 21/2 miles," he said.

Boyette said resort-bound hunters often fly though the airport, and the plane was the only in-bound flight expected at the airport Friday.