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Photo by Bobby
Haven, The Brunswick News
Brunswick,
Ga.- On Thursday, August 15, shortly before 3:00 p.m. a 1969
Cessna 150 crashed and broke into two pieces approximately 2,
000 feet at the end of the main runway at the Glynco Jetport in
Glynn County. According
to Glynn dispatch, it took Glynn County’s crash truck (CFR 11)
just 2 minutes with FF Mark (Country) Thrift on board to arrive
at the crash scene with full protective clothing on.
The location of the crash was a little over a mile form
the response station. Pilot
Johnnie Roswell Courson, 60, of Blackshear was found dead at the
crash scene. William
Scott Hering, 26 was thrown clear of the plane and was found
alive and conscious by fire personnel.
He was transported with severe second and third-degree
burns on 50 percent of his body to the local hospital. Later he
was flown to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta.
The quick response by the fire department is responsible
for saving Hering’s life according to police investigators.
This
is the third plane crash in Glynn County during these last ten
months but the first to claim a life.
The first plane crash occurred near the airport in heavy
fog when a plane ran out of fuel in the early winter months. The second crash occurred on St. Simons Island during a storm
in late spring when the landing gear failed to deploy. The cause of this crash is still under investigation.
Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration
and the National Transportation Safety Board arrived the
following day for their investigation.
Local
newspapers reported that Courson was interested in purchasing
the plane. When
Manning Aviation was approached about his flying the plane,
Manning refused, saying that the aircraft was not insured, and
that the plane could not accommodate the weight of a full fuel
tank as well as both men. Manning did allow the two passengers to “taxi” the
aircraft and check the plane out on airport property.
Several
witnesses saw the crash, but only noticed the low altitude of
the aircraft just before the crash. The plane appeared to be only several hundred feet in the air
before the crash. No
emergency radio transmissions or unusual sounds were made before
the crash.
The Glynn County Fire Department followed guidelines
for any crash at the Jetport.
Along with the Crash Truck, three engine companies
responded from three stations, two squads, and officers from the
Fire Administration were on the scene within minutes.
It took foam and dry powder to put the fire out from the
down plane. The
plane had broken into two pieces |
