Three people were taken to a hospital Tuesday evening after a small plane went down in a field in Union County, South Carolina, authorities said, marking the latest in a series of recent small-plane crashes under federal review.
Emergency crews were called shortly after 7 p.m. to the 3100 block of Old Buncombe Road, where the plane crash-landed in a field near Union County Airport, according to the Union County Sheriff’s Office. The Federal Aviation Administration
said the plane was a Rockwell Commander 114 and that it crashed in a field near Union, South Carolina, around 7:20 p.m. local time with three people on board.
Investigators said early indications point to a mechanical problem that developed while the plane was in flight, the sheriff’s office told local news station WYFF 4, an NBC-affiliated station. The pilot attempted to divert to Union County Airport, but the plane was forced down in a nearby field before reaching the runway, officials said.
All three occupants survived the impact and were taken to a local hospital with injuries described as not life-threatening. Authorities did not immediately release the names of those on board or provide details about the extent of their injuries.
Tuesday’s accident follows another recent
small-plane crash that left two people hospitalized in Union County, North Carolina, on Sunday afternoon, according to local authorities there. Deputies there responded around 2:01 p.m. to the 5800 block of North Rocky River Road after a small plane went down in a cow pasture not far from Goose Creek Airport, according to the Union County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina.
When first responders arrived Sunday, they found the plane heavily damaged with wreckage strewn across the pasture. The pilot had been thrown from the plane on impact and was taken by ambulance to Goose Creek Airport, then airlifted to a hospital, while the passenger was trapped in the wreckage and had to be cut free before being transported by ambulance, the sheriff’s office
said in an update Tuesday.
Federal investigators are also reviewing a deadly small-plane crash
last Friday at Los Altos Golf Course in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that killed one person and seriously injured another. Albuquerque Fire Rescue said crews were dispatched around 11:39 a.m. March 6 and found a propeller-driven Columbia LC-41 on the course with two occupants trapped inside. Both were taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where one later died.
The FAA confirmed that a Columbia LC-41 crashed around 12:10 p.m. local time Friday with two people on board and said the NTSB will oversee the investigation into the cause. Fire officials said it was not immediately clear what led to the plane’s sudden descent onto the golf course, which sits near Lomas Boulevard and Interstate 40.
