FAYETTE COUNTY, Ga. — A pilot had quite the scare in the air and on the ground just before his performance in the Atlanta Air Show Sunday.
He was forced to eject from the aircraft just before it crashed. He was able to parachute to safety.
Witnesses described the terrifying moment saying they saw flames and smoke as the jet dove from the sky into a cow pasture in Fayette County.
“I heard him," said Nathan Smith. "It was like, put-put-put, and I could tell something wasn’t right.”
Nathan and Emily Smith raced toward the tower of smoke, from their home in Brooks, to find the wreckage of the plane crash. They were relieved that the pilot, Captain Kevin Domon-Grenier of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds, survived.
Lieutenant Colonel Mike French, the commanding officer of 431 (Air Demonstration) Squadron, released a statement saying they were grateful Domon-Grenier was able to make it to safety.
"He was taken to the hospital as a precaution and has since been released, " French statement said.
Right now, French said the circumstance leading up to the ejection are not known.
"An investigation team from the Directorate of Flight Safety in Ottawa will travel to Georgia within 24 hours to conduct a flight safety investigation to determine the cause of the incident," the statement said.
Chris Dirgo and his family were in the stands at the air show, heartsick at what they suddenly saw on the horizon.
“We saw the Snowbirds approaching in the distance," he said. “We saw this major cloud of smoke, I mean the cloud of smoke was just huge—billowing, thick smoke.”
The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office received the first call about a plane down at 1:17 p.m. Rescue crews arrived to find scorched ground, burning debris, and the pilot on his feet detached from his chute.
“I would say the ejection seat’s probably about one-hundred yards from probably the center of the crash site," said Fayette County Sheriff Barry Babb. "So the pilot ejected pretty late in the game. He was fine. Our deputies were talking to him.”
Those at the air show found out over the intercom that the pilot survived.
“They said he was okay and everybody was relieved, he got a standing ovation," Dirgo said.
“I think Alan Shepard, the astronaut, said any landing you can walk away from is a good landing," the sheriff' said. "So I guess you can say he had a good landing.”
Plane crashes near Atlanta Air Show
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French said in his statement that it was too early to tell if the Snowbirds would be a part of their last air show for this season, which is scheduled later this month in Houston.
"The priority right now is to provide support to the members of our squadron and their families and to investigate fully the cause of the accident."
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