Atlanta Jewish community leader killed in plane crash

The former president of an Atlanta synagogue is one of two people who died in an airplane crash in a northwestern neighborhood of the city.

Peter Mallen, 67, the founder of a high-tech textile company and president of The Temple in Atlanta from 2004 to 2006, was piloting the plane when it went down and exploded into flames last week near Interstate 285, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.

Officials say they are investigating and do not know the cause of the crash, which also killed a 26-year-old Emory University graduate.

The Jewish Daily Forward said Mallen was a married father of four.

According to the report, it was Mallen’s second plane crash, and the second one to claim a life in his immediate family.

On Oct. 20, 1998, his small plane crash landed in a field near Rio Rancho, New Mexico, while on a flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta. Neither Mallen nor his passenger was injured, but the plane was destroyed.

In 1972, Mallen’s brother, Steven Mallen, was killed when his small plane crashed near Jasper, Georgia, according to federal records.