The twin-engine Swearingen Merlin, belonging to Southland Leasing Corporation, was scheduled to land at 6:26 on a flight from the Greenville-Spartanburg area when it suffered an apparent gear failure. WSB's Scott Slade, a pilot, says often there is no indication gears will collapse until it's time to touch down.

"Which means, more or less, that when it touched down and put its weight on the gear, it collapsed and the airplane went over on its side," explains Slade.

Joy Hoge, who works at Briscoe Field's restaurant, the Flying Machine, said people in the restaurant were alerted to the accident when a man came running in to say a plane on the runway was on fire.

"The whole plane was in blazes," Hoge tells WSB. "There was so much black smoke. It was like a house burning up—the black smoke and the flames being that high."

Authorities said two people aboard were able to crawl out before the fire.

Tuesday, 4.26.2005