GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Two drivers taken to the hospital after a plane struck their cars Monday tell Channel 2 Action News they are happy to be alive.
Rigoberto Villa told Channel 2’s Candace McCowan that glass hit his eyes after a single-engine propeller plane crashed into his black SUV on Monday at Browns Bridge Road and Pearl Nix Highway in Gainesville.
“I didn’t know what was happening. I thought, ‘What’s happening?’ And I went behind and thought it was a car that got me,” said Villa. “The piece of the airplane was inside of my car.”
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Villa’s car is one of several struck, as a police report states the small plane with two pilots on board came down.
The pilot told investigators he took off from nearby Lee Gilmer Airport and was headed for Canton when he tried to return to the airport and lost power.
The pilot determined he couldn’t make it back to the airport and found there was space on Browns Bridge Road, according to the police report.
“I heard this loud roar,” 71-year-old Randy Matheny said. “You know how big trucks use jake brakes? That’s what it sounded like, and I said ‘Oh, I’m fixing to get plastered.’”
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“By the time I got hit, I was starting to twist around. I looked out my passenger window, and I saw the airplane twisting around,” said Matheny.
Villa and Matheny were the drivers of two of the four cars struck by the plane. They were both taken to the hospital and released. Villa said he was covered in fuel after the crash.
When it comes to the pilot, Matheny believes “he took out as least amount of collateral damage as he could.”
Randy is thankful that he’s here to tell his story.
“I’m blessed, and I realize that,” he said.
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