Western New Yorkers Witness Deadly South Carolina Plane Crash

Sarah Hopkins 16 hrs ago

HILTON HEAD, S.C. - It was a frightening sight yesterday for a Western New York woman on vacation in South Carolina.

The Angola native's oceanfront condo-- where she was staying with two friends, including another woman from Western New York-- gave her a front-row view of a small plane crash that killed a person who was walking on the beach.

Diane O'Hara tells 2 on Your Side she was in the living room looking out the window, when she just happened to see the plane go past the window.

She says it was flying unusually low, but she doesn't recall hearing any sounds that would have indicated it was having problems.

O'Hara says she didn't actually see it hit the ground, but she did see the aftermath, and she was struck by the fact that she could have easily been the one killed.

"In some ways you just feel lucky that it wasn't you," O'Hara said. "I mean, we walked the beach how many times since we got here on Saturday, and [it's] by the grace of God in a way, that you weren't the one there at the time."

The plane was heading to Virginia from Orlando when it had to make an emergency landing.

Investigators say the pilot tried to make it to the airport, but the plane started losing oil and the propeller fell off so he decided to ditch it on the beach

Officials say the victim was a man from Georgia on a business trip who was jogging on the beach.

There were two people on the plane; they were not hurt.

From: http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=75361&provider=gnews