A pilot died and a passenger was injured when their plane crashed Tuesday in Guilford County, North Carolina.
The crash occurred at around 11:36 a.m. when the two-seat, single-engine plane struck an overpass and then crashed to the ground and caught fire, according to local news outlet WXII-12.
Fifty-two-year-old Kurtis Dale Williams, who is believed to have been flying the plane at the time of the incident, was pronounced dead at the scene, the outlet reported. His 39-year-old passenger, James Foecking, was taken to UNC-Chapel Hill Hospital where he is currently in stable condition. Both men are commercial pilots.
JUST IN: the plane was occupied by two adults, 52-year-old Kurtis Williams and passenger, 39-year-old James Foecking.
Williams died as a result of the crash. Foecking was taken to UNC chapel hill and is in stable condition. https://t.co/1aG7tQiM2w
— Amber Lake WFMY (@amberlakeTV) April 12, 2023
The plane was registered to a Glenn F. Miller and was an RV-12 experimental amateur-built aircraft that was certified airworthy by the FAA in late August of 2021.
Nathan Perkins, who witnessed the crash, told FOX-8 that he saw the passenger waving out the window before the plane went down. (RELATED: GRAPHIC: Horrifying Video Shows The Final Moments Inside Doomed Nepalese Flight)
“It was super weird, I was like man, what’s going on, I mean this plane just keeps getting lower and then I saw a guy waving out of the window and I thought oh no, something is wrong,” Perkins told the outlet.
He and another man then ran over to the burning plane, pulled the passenger out, and rolled him down the hill in order to “get the fire off of him,” Perkins told FOX-8, noting that the flames were so thick, he couldn’t tell whether anyone else was in the plane.
The crash is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.