Authorities: Likely no survivors after military plane crashes on highway
PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. — A crew of nine Puerto Ricans were flying an Air National Guard C- 130 into retirement in Arizona when it crashed onto a highway in Georgia on Wednesday, and authorities said there appeared to be no survivors.
The plane crashed onto state highway 21 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.”
The huge plane’s fuselage appeared to have struck the median, and pieces of its wings were scattered across lanes in both directions. 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 U. S. citizens stranded in the British Virgin Islands following Hurricane Irma and ferry supplies to the U. S. territory of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria last year.
It’s too early to say what might have caused the accident, he said. The plane last received maintenance at the base in Savannah in April.
All nine crew members had helped with hurricane recovery efforts, Rivera said.
Motorist Mark Jones told the Savannah Morning News that he saw the plane hit the road right in front of him, about a mile from the airport.
“It didn’t look like it nosedived, but it almost looked like it stalled and just went almost flat right there in the middle of the highway,” Jones said, describing how people stopped and got out of their cars following the explosion.