WELLFORD, S.C. – A small plane made an emergency landing on a road in northern South Carolina.
Local media outlets reported five people were on board the Cessna 206 when it landed on Highway 29 in Wellford on Thursday night. No injuries were reported.
The pilot says those onboard are members of Team Fastrax, a professional skydiving team from Middletown, Ohio. They were headed to Charleston, South Carolina for the Cooper River Bridge Run, where they were scheduled to perform Saturday.
Pilot Hollis Collins says they had planned to refuel at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in Greer when the engine cut off and they were forced to make an emergency landing.
“I went ahead and decided to put it on the road,” Collins told NBC. “We’re a faith based organization, Team Fastrax. We pray before we take off for safe landings and luckily we missed a power line, missed a car coming by, was able to put it down on the road, no damage to the airplane, no damage to anybody on there.”
Officials closed off a strip of the highway on Friday and the plane was brought back to the landing site so that it could resume its journey to Charleston.
A crowd gathered to watch the plane take off and cheered when it lifted off.
Authorities say the Federal Aviation Administration will investigate what caused the engine failure.
-with files from Jenny Sung
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