Pickens, SC-- The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after a fixed wing, single-engine plane carrying four people crashed Sunday in the Liberty area near the Pickens County Airport, authorities said.
The plane, which was a Cirrus SR22, was traveling from the Cobb County Airport in Georgia to Greensboro, N.C., and the pilot reported an engine problem, according to Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Bergen said the plane is still in the trees at the crash site in Pickens County.
She said an FAA inspector has been at the scene since this morning.
There were no serious injuries, and the pilot and three passengers were rescued from the plane, which was in a tree, said Chuck Haynes, director of Pickens County Emergency Management.
Haynes said that at 4:45 p.m. Sunday emergency personnel were notified that a plane was "inbound to Liberty airport with some trouble."
He said the small, private plane was going to use the Pickens County Airport as an emergency landing site but instead came to rest in a heavily wooded area near McClanahan Road and Tupelo Way off of Breazeale Road.
"This particular model plane actually has the parachute built into it," Haynes said. "Its occupants stay inside and then the plane actually comes to rest via parachute."
He said they used ropes and ladders to secure the plane and safely lower the occupants down.
"We had multiple rescue and fire units on scene," Haynes said. "It was an operation where we had to stabilize the airplane so it wouldn't basically fall out of the tree and cause harm to the occupants on board."
Two people were transported for minor injuries, and the other two refused transport to the hospital, he said.
Haynes said he doesn't have the names of the plane's occupants, and Bergen said the FAA's policy is not to release names or information of people on board the aircraft.
Bergen said the aircraft will be removed by Atlanta Air Salvage and taken to its facility in Griffin, Ga.
"We don't have an exact time or date," she said.
Haynes said there was no fire and the plane was intact.
The Greenville News