A plane with a skydiving team aboard lost all power and landed on a road near Greenville on Thursday night.
The plane’s pilot planned to try to take off from a road on Friday afternoon after the plane was checked for problems.
Tyger River Fire Chief Jim Redd says the plane will be taking off from Highway 29 in Wellford. Fire crews will be towing the plane for a short distance before the take off. Police and fire departments will close part of Highway.
The single engine Cessna 206 was carrying five skydivers from Team Fastrax and made an emergency landing on Highway 29 in Wellford . No one was injured.
Pilot Hollis Collins says they’re members of a Team Fastrax, a profession skydiving team from Middletown, Ohio. They were headed to Charleston for the 38th annual Cooper River Bridge Run where they were scheduled to perform on Saturday.
Collins say they planned to refuel at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in Greer when the engine cut off and they were forced to make an emergency landing.
“Basically something went out on the engine. We tried to restart it,” Collins said.
Collins wanted to land in a nearby field, but said the plane was going down very quickly.
“A police officer driving by clocked us doing about 90 mph.”
Collins said Highway 29 was empty when he put the plane on the ground. He said it was a miracle they landed safely, missing power lines and homes.
The plane sat in the median near the intersection of Hwy. 29 and Dodge Street until authorities towed it away.
The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate what happened.
