Afrida Ahmed: It was believed that nine people were dead on Wednesday when a Puerto Rico Air National Guard plane crashed on a highway just a few miles from a Georgia airport. A spokesman for the Georgia Air National Guard’s 165th Airlift Wing, Capt. Jeff Bezore said five bodies had been found from the Lockheed C-130 Hercules but he couldn’t inform how many people were present on the aircraft. According to the Chatham Emergency Management Agency in Savannah, the aircraft went down around 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, a few miles northeast of Hilton Head International Airport, between Georgia Highway 21 and Crossgate Road. A video footage that was captured by a local’s surveillance camera showed that the airplane went down and took an abrupt nosedive all of a sudden. Thick and dark smoke went up into the blue sky a few seconds later. During a news briefing, Effingham County sheriff’s spokeswoman Gena Bilbo said there were no cars hit in the crash. She also said the highway where the aircraft crashed might be shut down for weeks as agencies scour the wreckage site. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello said on Twitter that he was surprised by the airplane crash and his prayers were with the families of the Puerto Rican crew.
Source: LaTimes