A small plane crashed in a yard at the 4500 block of the South Shades Crest road, in Helena, Alabama, at around 2 p.m. on August 1.
All 4 people aboard the plane survived with minor injuries. They have been identified as the pilot, Dan Smith, and the passengers Andy Smith, Sharon Smith and a 17-year-old female whose name has not been disclosed. All of them hail from Tennessee. They were taken to local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Jefferson and Shelby County sheriff’s deputies and Helena police and firefighters arrived on the scene immediately after the crash. Helena police Detective Sgt. Chris Rollan said the pilot and passengers were saved by the neighbors who pulled them from the plane before it caught fire.
Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the plane was a Piper PA-32 aircraft that left Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City, Florida, for Dickson Municipal Airport in Tennessee. The single-engine plane was built in 1978 and registered to Cougar Aviation LLC in Dickson, Tennessee.
The FAA and NTSB were called to determine the cause of crash.