By Tonya Root, McClatchy Newspapers –
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.— The pilot of a plane carrying a banner jumped from his aircraft just before it crashed into the ocean near North Myrtle Beach Wednesday morning.
Kathryn Johnson, on vacation from Dallas, was in the water when she saw the plane losing altitude.
“I thought he was going to dip his sign in (the water) because he was getting so close,” she said. “I saw the pilot jump out just before his plane hit the water.”
(PHOTO: North Myrtle Beach Rescue volunteers look for a downed banner plane near 44th Ave. South in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Wednesday, July 18, 2012. The plane was located in the ocean, but will not be pulled to shore until Thursday morning, according to the North Myrtle Beach Public Safety.)
Johnson said six to 10 people from the crowded beach, followed by about four lifeguards, quickly entered the water in an attempt to aid the pilot, but that he was picked up by a Sea-Doo in the area towing a banana boat and brought to shore.
The pilot’s name and condition were not immediately known. But beachgoers said he did not appear to be seriously hurt.
Police and lifeguards kept people out of the water in the area as a North Myrtle Beach rescue boat circled the area in the ocean searching for the plane, which sunk.
An official from the banner plane company was on the beach, but declined to comment about the incident.
Kim Battin was sitting on the beach with her family, who are on vacation from Philadelphia, when she saw the plan start to fly closer to the ocean.
“We saw it coming down and then the engine stalled,” she said. “You could see the propeller stop and just as it hit you could see (he pilot’s) head popping out of the water.”
It was the first such crash Battin has witnessed and she said it has made for a memorable vacation.
“I was reading the banner and it sounded like a good show when the plane just went down,” Battin said of the banner, which she said was an advertisement for a show by The Temptations and Four Tops at the Alabama Theatre.