South Carolina students say pilot has drifted away from home

A student in South Carolina said he and his roommates counted their blessings in the moments after a small, narrow plane passed their house and crashed into their backyard on Wednesday morning.

Charles Grondines, a 21-year-old student at the University of South Carolina, said his roommate saw the plane flying directly towards their home in Columbia in thick fog before doing what appeared to be an evasive maneuver.

“He’s coming straight at us, then he turns at the last second and his wing has cut the roof of the house in front of us, then he’s kind of turned to our backyard,” Grondines continued.

“We hear this great rumble,” he said. “There was no explosion at the start, and my roommate who was actually outside, ran inside and said, ‘A plane just crashed in our backyard! ‘”

“We didn’t know what to do,” said Grondines. Since they hadn’t seen any fire, they decided to go back outside and help.

“And then it exploded,” Grondines said. “If this second explosion had happened a little later, it could have been really bad.”

The students, four of whom live together, believe he flew to avoid crashing in their home just south of the Publix grocery store on Rosewood Avenue.

“I’m sure this guy did it, but if his intention was to land where it wouldn’t affect anyone else, he did a great job,” said Grondines. “It is truly tragic what happened, but we definitely count our blessings.”

Columbia Fire Department tweeted photos of a vast intervention operation around the branches of felled trees.

The coroner’s department is involved but the fire department has not commented on the occupant of the plane.

“The accident caused a house fire”, according to the department tweeted. “The occupant of the house sustained a minor injury unrelated to the accident. The fire is now extinguished.”

Shelby Beckler, also a USC student who lives nearby, said small planes like this are common at Columbia’s Jim Hamilton – LB Owens Airport.