Authorities in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on Thursday, November 12, identified the two men aboard a small plane that crashed into woods beside a residential area in Lawrenceville on Tuesday evening: Eric Stephens, 57, of Roswell, the founder of the Roswell-based company zPaper, died at the scene, and Peter Magnuson survived with injuries that were not life-threatening, according to Gwinnett County officials and reporting by Atlanta News First cited by Access North Georgia. The Gwinnett County Medical Examiner's Office identified Stephens as the man who died.
Source: Access North Georgia, reporting Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services (updated Nov 12, 2026)
The crash happened at about 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10, in the 1000 block of Old Athens Road, near Gwinnett County Airport — Briscoe Field. The Gwinnett County 911 Dispatch Center received a call from the airport's air traffic control tower reporting that a single-engine aircraft was experiencing an engine issue and was down in the trees, county officials said. Firefighters with Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services arrived at 5:39 p.m. and found the fixed-wing aircraft in a wooded area next to homes, with both occupants trapped inside.
Crews secured the scene and began extricating the two men. One occupant, found on the right side of the aircraft, was deceased; Stephens was pronounced dead at the scene after 5:30 p.m. The second man, Magnuson, was freed and taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The aircraft did not catch fire, fire officials said. The Medical Examiner's Office responded for the deceased once the Federal Aviation Administration cleared the scene, will determine the cause of death, and the family of the man who died was notified at the scene with help from the Gwinnett County Police Department.
A flight of about 90 minutes that never made it back
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has identified the aircraft as a Velocity-173 FG, a single-engine plane. It had taken off from Briscoe Field about 90 minutes before the crash and was trying to return to the airport when the pilot reported engine trouble, according to investigators and local reporting. Neighbor Seth Bielstein found the crashed aircraft and called 911, and said first responders arrived within a few minutes, News Now Georgia reported. Investigators have not said whether Stephens was the pilot, and although engine trouble was reported before the crash, the NTSB has not determined that — or anything else — as the cause.
Who Eric Stephens was
Stephens founded zPaper, a Roswell-based paper products company, and served as its chief technology officer. zPaper chief operating officer Ken Schumacher confirmed Stephens' death in a statement, said the company continues serving customers without interruption, and asked that the company and family's request for privacy during their grieving be respected, according to News Now Georgia. Stephens was a longtime member of Roswell United Methodist Church, which said on Wednesday, November 11, that it was opening its sanctuary and chapel for prayer, with clergy and ministers available to support those grieving, and asked that his wife, Cammie, his daughters Catherine and Mary, and their family be kept in prayers.
The investigation, and what happens next
NTSB investigators removed the wreckage from the wooded site on Wednesday, November 11, and the board is leading the investigation into the cause, with the FAA also involved; county officials said any further questions should be directed to the NTSB. Gwinnett County police secured the wreckage until investigators were done with the scene, and a road closure was put in place at Rock House Road SE and Old Athens Road SE while the work continued. The next public step is the NTSB's preliminary reporting on the flight — the sequence of the takeoff, the engine-trouble call to the tower, and the attempted return — before any conclusion about why the aircraft came down.
Known: the aircraft, a Velocity-173 FG, left Briscoe Field about 90 minutes before the 5:30 p.m. crash on November 10; engine trouble was reported to the tower; both men were trapped and freed by firefighters; Eric Stephens died and Peter Magnuson was injured. Not known: who was piloting, and what caused the crash — the NTSB has made no determination.
Briscoe Field is Gwinnett County's general-aviation airport, serving private and training flights for a fast-growing county northeast of Atlanta whose suburbs, including Lawrenceville, Duluth and Norcross, are home to one of the largest immigrant communities in the Southeast — including a significant Punjabi and Sikh population around metro Atlanta. For residents near Old Athens Road, the immediate impact was the closed road and a heavy emergency response in a residential area on Tuesday evening; for the wider flying community, the case now rests with federal investigators examining the aircraft, its records and the tower communications from that evening.