CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Jill Reed has lived near Mustang Beach Airport in Port Aransas for 15 years and said she was afraid when she heard about the plane crash.
“I was so afraid that it was one of my friends that it was one of their planes…but obviously it wasn’t as I would’ve heard from them,” Reed said.
Reed said it’s shocking hearing about those in the crash and that the crash was loud.
“There was no smoke. That’s for sure…. when I saw the fire engines and what not…that there was going to be a fire over here…but there was no fire,” Reed said.
DPS said Carrol V Jorgenson, 76, the male pilot, was pronounced dead on the scene and 2 male passengers, ages 40 and 8 were also on board and had serious injuries. DPS said the passengers were ejected from the plane but still secured in their seats.
Mark Davis, a local from Aransas Pass, was working on his friend’s boat during the crash and arrived on the scene where another friend told him he cut the 8-year-old boy’s seatbelt.
“I guess the seatbelt was pinching right through him and they couldn’t get the clasp undone so he took his pocket knife and cut it and when he did, the whole tail of the plane fell off. It was actually the seatbelt that was holding the tail of the plane on,” Davis said.
DPS said the 40-year-old was transported by halo-flight to Spohn Shoreline Hospital in Corpus Christi and the 8-year-old boy was taken by ground ambulance to Doctors Regional Hospital and later Driscoll Children’s Hospital, both of them with non-life-threatening injuries.
Tom rushing has lived near the airport for 23 years, saying he’s never heard of a fatal crash at the airport but has heard of other crashes that didn’t involve deaths. He described the crash as sounding like an aluminum building folding in. He said he saw 2 planes on the taxiway and everyone running towards the crash site. He then got in his golf cart and described the scene as a tragedy.
“The ambulances were pulling up when we got there and we could hear the little boy crying so we know he was awake and vocal anyways and we hope he’s okay,” Rushing said.
The Federal Aviation Agency is leading the investigation and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating as well. KRIS6 will provide more details as we get them.
