Plane runs out of gas with three people on board near Brunswick Airport

GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. — It was a scary situation for three people in Glynn County, Georgia, after their plane ran out of gas and landed in a marsh. It happened Saturday afternoon, 3 miles from the Brunswick-Golden Isles Airport, and those people had to be rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter.

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Alec Eaton is a Glynn County Emergency Management specialist. He said around 3:00 p.m. Saturday, his department responded to a private, single-engine plane that ran out of gas and landed in a marsh.

“We were able to get eyes on them pretty quickly. As they touched down, we had our drone in the air we had our first responders out here,” Eaton said.

Miranda Smith is one woman who witnessed the aftermath of that landing because it basically happened in her backyard.

“I didn’t see the plane go down. We normally do hear because this is, like, the flyover when the planes take off from the airport,” Smith said.

Smith said she and her husband were doing yardwork when she heard sirens and then noticed dozens of first responders rushing onto her property.

“I guess they had GPS coordinates, so they knew it was at the end of the road, and you could at that point see that there were people walking on the wings, I guess, and waving and flagging. It just threw us off because it’s not every day but a plane is in your backyard. And you can’t physically get out there. Like, you can’t walk through the marsh,” Smith said.

Officials said the plane landed about 500 meters from the Smiths property and it was somewhat difficult to reach the survivors.

“Back here on private property, we don’t have any boat access ramps to be able to get directly to them,” Eaton said.

That’s something that concerned Smith. The survivors were airlifted by the Coast Guard to the Brunswick Airport to be checked out by medical staff before giving their final statement to the Federal Aviation Administration.

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UPDATE 6/29/2019 5:44 p.m.: Glynn County officials said the plane's occupants have been rescued from the marsh and are being medically evaluated at the Brunswick-Golden Isles Airport.

UPDATE 6/29/2019 5:20 p.m.: Glynn County officials confirmed that a small Piper plane made an emergency landing in the marsh in Brunswick on Saturday afternoon after running out of fuel on the way to the Brunswick-Golden Isles Airport.

Officials said two 17-year-olds and one adult were on board when the plane crashed. No major injuries were reported.

Glynn County rescue officials and airport staff have been in communication with the plane's occupants and Coast Guard helicopters are on the scene to rescue the passengers from the marsh.

UPDATE 6/29/2019 4:08 p.m.: The Glynn County Fire Department said they are on the scene of a plane crash in Brunswick, Ga.

Manning Avation, which runs a private terminal at Brunswick-Golden Isles Airport, told Action News Jax that a small plane crashed into the marsh east of the airport.

They said rescue crews are having a hard time reaching the downed plane due to the location of the crash.

Manning Aviation believes there were two passengers on board, but said no one was hurt.

Officials believe the plane ran out of fuel before crashing.

Cox Media Group