HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A small single-engine airplane with two people on board made an emergency landing early Wednesday afternoon along a busy section of Highway 501 in Horry County, South Carolina, authorities said.
The plane landed on the highway at about noon after the pilot reported an engine problem, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
Horry County Fire Rescue was dispatched at 12:12 p.m., and the plane was seen being towed away by a pickup truck a short time later.
WBTW Video: Savannah Denton
The fixed-wing Diamond DA40 aircraft is registered to Lift Aircraft LLC based in Indianapolis, Indiana, according to information on the FAA’s website. The company operates a commercial pilot training academy in Myrtle Beach.
“While conducting a maintenance flight earlier today, one of our training aircraft experienced an in-flight event that resulted in an emergency landing near Myrtle Beach International Airport,” Lift Academy spokesman Jon Austin told Nexstar’s WBTW in a statement.” The pilot and mechanic aboard executed their checklist and safely landed without injury to anyone or damage to the aircraft.”
“I was on the phone and I noticed there was a plane that was kind of coming down, it was flying really, really low,” said Dylan Wadzinski, who captured footage of the plane landing. “Like, it was struggling a little bit and I guess just naturally, I just kind of looked away like, ‘Oh, that’s weird.’ And then it hit me, like, wow, there’s a plane landing on [Highway] 501.”
The plane landed safely, and there were no injuries, HCFR said. An image captured on a South Carolina Department of Transportation traffic camera shortly before 1 p.m. showed the plane being moved from the scene.
Austin said the aircraft was taken back to the airport in coordination with first responders and that the rest of the school’s operations were unaffected.
According to flight-tracking website FlightAware, the plane took off from Myrtle Beach International Airport at about 10:45 a.m. and landed at 12:10 p.m. It appears the plane was doing touch-and-go landings prior to the emergency landing.
“Thank goodness, you know, there was a clearing there and nobody got hurt because I imagine, you know, it could have been much, much worse,” Wadzinski said. “Even going back and looking at the video, I mean, there were power lines. It could’ve been devastating if, you know, if traffic was backed up like it normally is at Carolina Forest on 501.”
The South Carolina Department of Public Safety and Horry County police are assisting in the investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration will also be investigating.
WBTW will have updates online and on-air during our afternoon and evening newscasts as more information becomes available.
