the Netflix series Stranger Things were filmed in the park. Aviation incidents According to George Weiblen's annotated calendar for Monday, May 7, 1928: "Mail plane crashed on mountain at 8:00 P.M." The pilot, Johnny S. Kytle (1905–1931), not only survived the crash, but managed to grab the mail and walk down the mountain. Around dusk on September 16, 2003, in clear weather, a small airplane circled the mountain five times, crashed headlong into the south side, and burst into flames. The pilot was killed. A witness testifying at the NTSB investigation stated that the pilot, a 69-year-old accountant, had threatened on multiple occasions to commit suicide by flying into the mountain. The official NTSB accident report lists the probable cause as "The pilot's intentional flight into the ground for the purpose of suicide while impaired by alcohol." Governance Stone Mountain Park, which surrounds the Confederate Memorial, is owned by the state of Georgia and managed by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, a Georgia state authority. The Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation had a 30-year contract to operate park attractions while the Stone Mountain Memorial Association retains ownership and the right to reject any project deemed unfit. Under terms of a 1999 agreement, Herschend pays the state of Georgia $11 million annually. In 2018, Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation decided to end their contract early after only 20 years due to record losses in 2017 and 2018, citing decreased revenues and “protests and division” fueled by the park’s ubiquitous Confederate imagery as factors. Bids for a new management company for Stone Mountain Park were submitted in October 2021 and are to be chosen February 2022. Currently the only bid is from Thrive Attractions Management Group, LLC, started by the previous Vice President of Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation and general manager of Stone Mountain Park for 10 years, Michael Dombrowski. There were no other bids submitted to the Mountain Memorial Association. The Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation is set to pull out by summer 2022. Places of interest Confederate Hall, operated directly by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association (SMMA), is a museum that educates students and park guests on the geology and ecology of Stone Mountain as well as historical aspects of the area. A small theater shows a historical documentary about the Civil War in Georgia called The Battle for Georgia. The education department is host to thousands of students each school year, teaching