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St.
Simons Island, Ga.- On Saturday, September 21st, at
10:14 a.m., alarms once again sounded for a plane crash in Glynn
County. A Piper
Lance, registered to Pine Valley Aviation Inc., of Waycross
crashed short of the southern end of the Malcolm McKinnon
Airport runway. Units
from Station 2 on Demere Road took just two minutes to arrive on
the scene and another few minutes putting the fire out.
Travelers
on nearby Kings Way saw the plane go down and jumped the fence
at the airport to assist the passengers just before the plane
burst into a ball of fire and smoke.
Both occupants were outside the wreckage. An instructor, Billy Smith and an 18-year-old student pilot,
Taylor Gibson both from Waycross, Georgia had been flying the
plane.
Both
passengers were taken by Glynn County Squad to Southeast Georgia
Regional Medical Center. The
instructor suffered a broken ankle and some burns.
The student pilot walked away from the crash.
Both were treated and released from the hospital.
It was fortunate that the passengers were able to escape
from the plane shortly before the craft went up in flames.
The plane crashed about 1000 feet short of the runway and
slid to about 500 feet onto the runway.
A wheel and parts of the wing lay in the grass, and on
the runway. Fire
melted down the front section of the plane before the Fire
Department could extinguish the flames.
Small oak limbs were lying on the ground off Kings Way.
There had been taller pine trees on that end of the
runway but had been removed by The Sea Island Company.
The Airport Commission had recently trimmed the uppermost
limbs on the oaks, which were left at that location, according
to Steve Brian, manager of the Airport Commission.
The
airport was closed for about an hour. Later planes were cleared
to land on another runway, which was not affected.
Brian said the plane had flown a pattern to land in what
is known as a “check ride.”
A “check ride” is basically a power off landing. He
also praised the passersby and the Glynn County Fire Department
for their quick response.
The
National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash,
which is the fourth plane incident in Glynn County in the last
10 months and the second incident on that runway since spring.
The last Glynn County crash occurred on August 15th
at the GLYNCO Jetport and claimed the life of the pilot.
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