Columbus hotelier was learning to fly during fatal Madison County plane crash

The father of the Columbus man killed while learning to fly in Madison County Wednesday night said his son had a long-standing interest in aviation and sought an out-of-state company for the training. Athar Mohammad Ashraf, 43, of Columbus, was sitting in the left seat of the Cessna 172 cabin, typically the pilot seat, when the plane dipped, clipped a wing and crashed just short of the 4,000-foot runway at Madison County Airport. Malik Aftab Naseem, 60, of Jasper, Alabama, his instructor was in the right seat, which has controls...