An audio recording of the airport radio transmissions from the time of the crash depicts a mid-air emergency near the airport.
Tamia Boyd,Daniel J. Gross|Greenville News
More than a week after an airplane crash left mangled metal on a smokestack above a battered fuselage that landed below, the chief of the Donaldson Center Fire Department said he is surprised that the people in the plane have survived.
Chief Mike Sadler's department helped care for the victims after the crash Nov. 24 in Greenville at the Donaldson Center, also called the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center, home to a public airport about two miles south of Interstate 85 south of Greenville.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash.
An NTSB spokesperson saidno report on the crash was available yet.
The pilotand a passenger suffered minor injuries,according to an FAA incident notice.
An incident report obtained by The Greenville News from the Greenville County Sheriff's Office through a Freedom of Information Act request showed that deputies arrived at the crash site when Greenville County Emergency Medical Services personnel were already on scene treating both victims.
The men involved in the crash were 61-year-old Ken Bickel of Travelers Rest and 65-year-old Steve James Fitch of Pickens, according to the Sheriff's Office report. They were both transported to Greenville Memorial Hospital.
Audio recording of the airport radio transmissions at the time of the crash
An audio recording of the airport radio transmissions posted to liveatc.net from the time of the crash depicts a mid-air emergency near the airport.
Posted to liveatc.net
The report did not state which man was flying. A review of FAA records shows Bickel was issued a pilot's license in January while there is no pilot recordfor Fitch.
Calls to phone numbers and emails sent to addresses associated in public records withBickel and Fitchwere not returned Wednesday. No new information on their conditions was immediately available
The plane has a registered tail numberof N5566J,according to the FAA. FAA records show that 1968 Piper PA-32fixed-wing, single-engine plane is owned byBarton Kent Hershfield of Cape Coral, Florida, butHershfield said in an email Wednesdaythat he no longer owns the plane.
"I sold it to someone else earlier this year,and they then sold it again in October.I don't know who the current owner is," Hershfield wrote in theemail."Probably due to COVID-19,I assume the FAA's records have not been updated yet to reflect the last two owners."
What to know: New details in crash at the Donaldson Center in Greenville
The incident report did not specify or speculate what may have caused the crash. A witnesstold deputies that he saw the plane flying toward the airport and heard the sound of the "engine shuttering" before "the engine went quiet."
The plane struck a smokestack and crashed behind a building, according to deputies. A portion of the plane remained stuck on the smokestack after the fuselage fell to the ground below.
Debris was cleared from the smokestack and around the scene on Nov. 25, according to Sadler.
An FAA spokesperson saidtheaircraft had departed from Donaldson Center and was flying in a traffic pattern for a runway at Donaldson when the crash happened. Earlier that day, the plane was flown from Davis Field in Liberty to Donaldson, according to FlightAware, an aviation software and data services company that tracks aircraft and flights.
Davis Field in Liberty is a privately owned turf runway about 850 feet long, according to skyvector.com, an aviation website that lists aeronautical charts and airport information. A deputy reported that the airplane had been stored at Davis Field.
An audio recording of the airport radio transmissions posted to liveatc.net from the time of the crash depicts a mid-air emergency near the airport. Just prior to the crash, the unidentified pilot reports a problem before the communication is interrupted.
Pilot: "We have a problem."
Tower: "You OK?"
Pilot: "Negative."
About a minute later, airport tower personnel instruct first-responders to get to the end of the runway.
The Donaldson Center is the site of a former Air Force base that was purchased by the city and county of Greenville before being developed into the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center. The city of Greenville and Greenville County now have joint, equal ownership of SCTAC, according to county spokesperson Bob Mihalic.
SCTACis home to 2,600 acres and operations for more than 100 companies, and it is billed as the Southeast's only business park dedicated to serving the dynamic needs of automotive, aerospace and advanced manufacturing. An 8,000-foot runway at Donaldson Field Airport is overseen by a 91-foot air-traffic-control tower, according to the SCTAC website.
Check back for more on this developing story.
Tamia Boyd is a Michigan native andcovers breaking news. Email her at tboyd@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @tamiamb.
