RAINBOW CITY, Ala. (WIAT) - On Sunday investigators were still going over the wreckage following a fiery crash in a swampy, wooded area off Perman Lake Road, just over a mile from the Northeast Alabama Regional Airport.

The pilot was the only person on the L-39 Albatross fighter jet. He is identified by co-workers as the now deceased - Thomas Coble of North Carolina. Coble was the founder of Coble Trench Safety and the former executive pilot for the late Reverend Jerry Falwell, according to a statement issued by the company.

NTSB Senior Air Safety Investigator, Corky Smith, said the aircraft was on a flight plan from Gadsden Ala. to Burlington, NC when it crashed shortly after departure at approximately 6:20 p.m. CST on Friday.

"The aircraft departed from 2-4. The witness walked inside and subsequently heard two loud booms. An employee from the fixed base operator came over and informed him that the aircraft had crashed," said Smith. "The aircraft did not gain sufficient altitude in order to obtain radar data so there is not any radar data associated with this. The weather at the time of the accident was 300 feet overcast and one mile visibility."

Explosives connected to the ejection seats in the aircraft complicated the recovery effort. They had to be deactivated before the pilot's remains could be removed. Now the NTSB is looking for flight logs which were reportedly on the plane. So far they haven't found those, according to Smith.

The pilot's remains will be taken to Huntsville for an autopsy and local toxicology.

Coble was 58 years old and had almost forty years of flying experience, according to the company statement.