An attorney with ties to Xenia, Ohio, near Dayton, and a law practice in Lebanon, Tenn., has died along with two other people when the small plane he was piloting crashed Saturday near Huntsville, Ala. The Dayton Daily News reports that Robert "Tim" Hatton, 52, practiced law in Kentucky at one time. Later, he put his legal career on hold and wrote books. But later he returned to the law and opened a practice near Nashville, the Ohio paper reported.A Xenia woman, Tara Lynn Whitacre, 32, did legal work for Hatton. She and her two children were passengers aboard Hatton's twin-engine, four-seater plane. One of Whitacre's children survived the crash but Whitacre and another child did not.
The Dayton Daily News reports that Whitacre and her children drove from Xenia to the Nashville area. There, they joined Hatton for the Saturday flight to Destin, Fla. Their plane crashed shortly after taking off from the Guntersville, Ala. airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.
