Aircraft Down in SC - Final Update

The word from South Carolina is that there was no aircraft crash. What happened is that Air Traffic Control lost communications with the aircraft. Later, communications were re-established and it was determined that everything was fine and that the aircraft had not crashed.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

Aircraft Down in SC - Update

I just got word from a fellow radio hobbyist in SC that the aircraft is down in Jasper County, SC. He mentioned that Jasper County FD and a Coast Guard helicopter are involved in the search; the USCG helicopter is probably 6565, which I have heard Sector Charleston replying to on 157.050. No further info is available at this time.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

Aircraft Down in SC?

Have heard some traffic on 159.450 (South Carolina Forestry Repeater) and 157.050 (Marine VHF Ch. 21) about a possible aircraft down. A forestry unit on 159.450 mentioned the search and I heard Sector Charleston working an unknown asset in reference to an ELT search/possible aircraft down; Sector advised there would be no re-tasking unless they got more information. The unknown asset is possibly 6565, today's AirFac Charleston duty helicopter.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

Aircraft Crash at Malcolm McKinnon Airport (SSI)

I initially got this out to the blog via a Twitter post this afternoon, but I wanted to get out a regular blog post about it as well. Shortly after 1500 today, a single engine two seat aircraft crashed on the runway at Malcolm McKinnon Airport on St. Simons Island. Zone 2 and other units from Glynn County FD responded to find the aircraft near the middle of the runway upright with moderate damage and one minor injury. Shortly after arrival, all units shifted from GCFD F1 to GCFD F2 for incident operations (this was the first time I've heard them move incident ops off of the F1 dispatch TG). It was also reported that a USCG helicopter was orbiting overhead when the first units arrived on scene (I didn't hear the USCG comms, it is hard to get simplex communications like that from inside this building with a handheld). Engine 2 and Squad 4 ended up handling the situation. Airport authorities were notified and the runway was closed.

If anyone heard any of the USCG comms on this incident I'd love to hear about it. I would guess they were either on CG 410 (413.000 MHz P25) or CG 113 (163.1375 MHz P25)

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

Aircraft Crash at Fort Stewart

Thanks to Adam W. from Scan Savannah who gave me the heads up on this incident, otherwise I would have missed it. Unfortunately, this aircraft crash was fatal, as a result I am withholding the N-number from this post in case the families of the deceased have not been notified yet. I have not seen any identifications on the TV News or the Newspaper, so I can only assume that family notifications are not complete.

Communications seemed to be primarily on Fort Stewart Fire Tac 1 (TG 3472 of the Fort Stewart/Hunter AAF TRS) and on 279.625 (Marne Radio). The tower at Wright AAF on Fort Stewart relayed traffic between Fort Stewart Fire Incident Command, who only had the UHF trunked radios and RESCUE 6542 who was on 279.625. RESCUE 6542, a USCG HH-65C from Air Station Savannah at Hunter AAF picked up the ELT from the crashed aircraft and triangulated it's location. After DFing the ELT, they were then able to locate a wing from the aircraft and the coordinates were passed to the Fire crews. Fort Stewart MEDIC 4 located the wreckage and a body at 11:40 PM. 3 0ther bodies were located later in the search and recovery operations. Throughout the search, RESCUE 6542 was also in communications with USCG Sector Charleston and Air Station Savannah.

Despite being called in late in the game (essentially 4 hours after the crash occurred), the Coast Guard quickly and efficiently located the wreck location and did a good job of vectoring the ground crews in despite the lack of direct communication (they apparently did toward the end via a Lt. from the Civil Air Patrol). I kept wondering throughout why Fort Stewart Fire was not equipped with some sort of radio to communicate with air assets. Given that one of their taskings is aircraft crashes, you would think that they would have the equipment to communicate on airband,military frequencies, or VHF land mobile to contact search aircraft directly.


Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net