GREENVILLE CO., S.C. (WSPA) – The Greenville County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed that there was a plane crash near Wade Hampton Blvd.
The plane crashed into a tree about 3 miles from the airport near Woodlawn Cemetery and the former Wade Hampton fire station on Pine Knoll Drive.
The Wade Hampton Fire Department and Greenville Fire Department were dispatched to the crash.
John Head says he watched the entire thing unfold.
He was driving down Wade Hampton Boulevard and one second the airplane was in the sky, the next, crashed and tangled up.
“The man was upside down in the airplane. It’s just amazing that he was alive,” Head said.
He stayed until the pilot was safe on the ground.
Head said, “He had some blood on the side of his head where he cut himself here but then they got him on the stretcher when he started out I said, ‘Praise God.'”
Taft Matney, public information officer for the Wade Hampton Fire Department said the plane went down because of oil pressure issues.
Matney said, “The pilot realized that he wasn’t going to make it all the way to the airport and deployed the airplane’s parachute.”
The pilot was shaken up of course, but walked away not needing any medical attention.
“I mean it could’ve been horrific for another family to lose someone,” Head said.
The fire department said the plane removal would take awhile.
A crew of about 5 people were on scene with a crane.
The fire department says they had water and foam ready just in case something were to happen and it caught on fire.
