Crew of nine all die as plane hits road
A CREW of nine Puerto Ricans were flying an Air National Guard C-130 into retirement in Arizona when it crashed on to a road in Georgia, and authorities said there are no survivors.
The plane crashed moments after taking off from the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, narrowly missing people on the ground and sending an orange and black fireball into the sky.
“It miraculously did not hit any cars, any homes,” Effingham County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Gena Bilbo said. “This is a very busy roadway.”
Eight hours after the crash, she added: “To our knowledge there are no survivors.”
The huge plane’s fuselage appeared to have struck the median, and pieces of its wings, which spanned 132ft, were scattered across lanes in both directions.
The debris field stretched 600ft in diameter, Ms Bilbo said. The only part still intact was the tail section, said Chris Hanks, a spokesman for the Savannah Professional Firefighters Association.
The plane was more than 60 years old, said Isabelo Rivera, Adjutant General of Puerto Rico’s National Guard.
Belonging to the 156th Air Wing, it was used to rescue US citizens stranded in the British Virgin Islands following Hurricane Irma and ferry supplies to the US territory of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria last year.
“The planes that we have in Puerto Rico – it’s not news today that they are the oldest planes on inventory” of all National Guard planes nationwide, Mr Rivera said.