(Savannah, Ga.) — An Averett aeronautics student and their flight instructor are lucky to be alive after they had to be plucked from the marshy banks of a Georgia river after their plane went down.
It happened Saturday afternoon just minutes after the Piper Cherokee took off from Savannah’s airport at four o-clock. An Averett spokesperson says the pilot had flown from Danville flew to Savannah hours earlier as part of a long-distance training flight.
According to a statement from Averett University, they experienced an “autopilot malfunction” during take-off from the Savannah Airport. Flight Radar 24 tracked their ill-fated flight. The pilot turned the plane around, presumably to see if they could make it back to the airport. Nine minutes later, the pilot put the plane down in some marshland near the Back River on the Georgia-South Carolina line.
Minutes later, the Coast Guard sent in an MH-65 Dolphin chopper from their station in Savannah to pluck the survivors to safety. The Coast Guard also released dramatic footage of the rescue. Both the student and the instructor were not hurt.
Averett University says the Piper aircraft was up-to-date on all maintenance and inspections. The university has reported the incident to the National Transportation Safety Board. They will conduct an investigation.
The pilot and the student’s names were not released.
Photo courtesy U.S. Coast Guard