All Three Aboard The Aircraft Survive

A Beechcraft King Air Turbo went down, Monday,  just short of the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport near Greer, South Carolina. Witnesses say the aircraft "skipped" over a highway and came to a stop on a hill just shy of the runway threshold. All three people aboard the aircraft were injured, but survived.

Television station WSPA in Spartanburg reports that the airplane had been brought to Stevens Aviation at KGSP with a possible avionics problem. Two of those on board were employees of Stevens, but the pilot, Mado McDonald, is from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The Stevens employees, Ed Wilk and Derrick Holliday, were asked to accompany McDonald on the flight to look at the avionics, but there was no indication that the plan was mechanically unsafe to fly. One portion of the investigation is centering around whether the King Air ran out of fuel during the flight.

McDonald is being called a hero by some. In making the emergency landing, he avoided hitting cars on Highway 14, which runs near the airport, and the fact that all aboard survived is a testament to his piloting skills.

The FAA and NTSB are investigating the accident.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov