OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – Horrific moments at EAA’s AirVenture in Oshkosh Wednesday morning as a single-engine plane crashed while landing.
It happened around 7:45 a.m. when the Piper Malibu plane went down on a runway at Wittman Regional Airport.
“It didn’t look right,” commercial pilot Vincent Milazzo told FOX 11. “It looked like he was trying to catch up to the final approach, and he overshot the runway.”
“As soon as I saw the wing hit the ground, and then the fuselage hit, there was just a fireball,” Milazzo said. “It didn’t look like it was survivable.”
Five people were on board the plane. EAA spokesman Dick Knapinski says the five were pilot Kenneth S. Kaminski, 46, from Benton Harbor, Michigan; and passengers Gerald T. Kaminski, 71, of Palos Hills, Illinois; Margaret C. Laing, 30, of Michigan; Nathan Gargano, 26, of Michigan; and Neil Dill, 56, from Indianhead Park, Illinois.
Knapinski says Dill had to be airlifted to the hospital, but the other 4 people were able to walk away from the plane under their own power. A sixth person was taken to the hospital after being hurt while treating the five people involved.
On Wednesday afternoon, a Theda Clark spokesperson said Kenneth Kaminski is in fair condition; Gerald Kaminski is in serious condition; and Dill is in critical condition.
Right after the crash, the airport was shut down. By noon, all the runways had been reopened.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
