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Pilot, passengers on the mend

GSP accident was 29th  in the state this year

by John Boyanoski

Published: Nov. 16, 2009, 8:59 a.m.

It wasn’t the birthday Jimmy Holliday expected, but he was happy with it just the same.

Holliday’s son Derrick was one of three men injured last week when the King Air B200 they were testing crashed just short of the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.

Visitors have told the Holliday family their son should have died in the crash, which sent pilot Mado McDonald and Stevens Aviations’ avionics engineer Ed Wilk to the hospital as well, instead of getting out with a broken nose and cheekbone.

“The greatest gift I have ever gotten was a son that is still here,” Holliday said.

Holliday was joined by his wife, Belinda, and daughter-in-law, Melissa, when they came to the Greenville Memorial Hospital Wednesday afternoon.

Derrick Holliday, 29, grew up in Easley and would sit in a field behind their house watching planes overhead and say that was his dream, his father said.

Holliday went to work at Greenville-based Stevens after finishing at Greenville Tech and has spent the last nine years there. His job was to work on the computerized and electrical parts of planes.

It is common for the avionics engineers to fly in the planes to listen for problems and to check equipment while in use. The King Air had flown in from Virginia Beach Sunday night for maintenance.

He normally calls somebody in his family for a quick prayer before flying.

Jimmy Holliday said his son didn’t call anyone Monday, which led to his shock when an emergency official called him around 11 a.m. about the crash. Holliday said he had to stop to get his bearings several times while driving to Greenville Memorial where his son underwent almost three hours of surgery before being moved to the intensive car unit.

Jimmy Holliday said his son has not been able to talk about the crash that occurred around 10:11 a.m. when the low on fuel plane hit a guardrail on Highway 14, skipped over the roadway, hit another guardrail and came to rest in a field below the runway.

A preliminary report released by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transit Safety Board stated the right of the plane’s Pratt & Whitney’s engines was spinning slow enough that a man two miles away saw blades turning at the time of the crash.

Emergency crews from GSP and surrounding fire departments responded. Holliday said people have told him the inside of the plane was severely damaged.

This was the 29th plane crash in South Carolina in 2009, according to a Journal review of NTSB records. That is up from 19 in 2008.

The NTSB is expected to release a preliminary report within the next two weeks.

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