Transport plane that crashed in Georgia was on final trip

PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. (AP) — An aging C-130 Hercules that rescued and resupplied U.S. citizens after last year's hurricanes crashed onto a Georgia highway during what was supposed to be its final flight, killing all nine Puerto Rican airmen on board.

The huge military plane was being flown into retirement in Arizona, reducing Puerto Rico's National Guard fleet to five similar planes, two of which need maintenance and aren't being used, Adjutant Gen. Isabelo Rivera said. He said the aircraft was more than 60 years old.

"The planes that we have in Puerto Rico -- it's not news today that they are the oldest planes on inventory" among all National Guard planes nationwide, and they often face delays in getting spare parts shipped to the island, he said.

However, Col. Pete Boone, vice-commander of the Savannah-based 165th Airlift Wing of the Georgia Air National Guard, said at a Thursday news conference that the plane's age was closer to 40 years. He said it had been in Savannah for "routine maintenance" and crashed after taking off for Arizona.

Boone also said the U.S. military has launched its investigation into the crash, and said investigators will "use every resource at our disposal to identify a cause."

Boone said he didn't know if the flight crew made a distress call to air traffic control before the crash. He said a military mortuary assistance team arrived overnight, but he didn't know if all the bodies had been recovered.

The pilot was identified as Maj. Jose Rafael Roman, who hailed from the coastal town of Manati along Puerto Rico's north coast. The mayor of that town, Jose Sanchez, told The Associated Press that Roman had two sons and his wife is five months pregnant with a girl.

"The town is in mourning," Sanchez said. "My condolences to all Puerto Rican families."

Carlos Narvaez, a newspaper sports editor who was Roman's close childhood friend, told the AP that Roman was nicknamed "Rotor" because he loved all things with a motor that go fast. He said Roman was president of his high school class and worked at a company that manufactured aluminum windows before joining the National Guard in the mid-2000s.

In December, Narvaez said Roman raised concerns about the age of the planes they were using.

"He told me, 'We're using the oldest planes of the entire United States of America,'" Narvaez recalled.

The plane dropped out of the sky onto Georgia's Highway 21 moments after taking off from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport. Rivera said the plane last received maintenance at the military base in Savannah in April.

All nine crew members had helped with hurricane recovery efforts as part of the 198th Fighter Squadron, nicknamed the Bucaneros, which flies out of Base Muniz in the northern coastal city of Carolina, Rivera said. The squadron used the plane to rescue Americans from the British Virgin Islands after Hurricane Irma, and later supplied food and water to Puerto Ricans desperate for help after Hurricane Maria.

"The National Guard is an extended family," Rivera said as doctors, psychologists and chaplains gathered to meet with the victims' relatives.

The huge plane came down so hard that the only part still intact was its tail section, said Chris Hanks, a spokesman for the Savannah Professional Firefighters Association. The fuselage appeared to have struck the median, and pieces of its wings, which spanned 132 feet (40 meters), were scattered across lanes in both directions.

The debris field stretched 600 feet (183 meters) in diameter, Effingham County Sheriff's spokeswoman Gena Bilbo said.

"It miraculously did not hit any cars, any homes," she said.

Motorist Mark Jones told the Savannah Morning News that he saw the plane hit the road right in front of him, and explode in a huge fireball.

"It didn't look like it nosedived, but it almost looked like it stalled and just went almost flat right there in the middle of the highway," Jones said.

"I'm still shook up and shaking. My stomach is in knots because I know they're people just like me. I wasn't that far from it and I could have just kept going and it would have been me and we wouldn't be talking right now," Jones said.

The U.S. territory's Gov. Ricardo Rossello expressed his sadness, tweeting that "our prayers are with the families of the Puerto Rican crew."

President Donald Trump tweeted that he had been briefed on the crash, and sent "thoughts and prayers for the victims, their families and the great men and women of the National Guard."

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press writer Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report.