Lake Palestine Plane Crash Probe Continues

LAKE PALESTINE — The FAA is continuing to investigate what caused a small plane to crash into Lake Palestine Saturday night. The plane went down around 8:30 on the south side of the lake, near the Shady Brook Country Club. Cherokee County Game Warden Eric Collins tells KETK an ultra light aircraft was carrying two people when it crashed. The two people inside were rescued and are okay. Charles Shaw actually saw the plane go down. He says he saw the pilot circling the lake before stalling out and crashing.

Shaw reports, “I didn’t realize something was wrong until right when he went down. He was getting real close to the lake but he does it all the time. He’s actually a neighbor of mine, and he lives down the road. He’s flying all the time, he got a little close and it looked like he stalled, and he just hit the water quick. I freaked out, I went to jump in the water, the boat pulled up, and the game warden was there ’cause of Fourth of July weekend. They responded really quickly.” Shaw says the man is an experienced pilot and has been flying for years. The FAA has been working to retrieve the plane wreckage from the lake.