Man skydives from plane hours before it fatally crashes

By Taylor Thompson

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    RUTHERFORD COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — Devin Hutchinson shared his experience with News 13 on how he skydived out of a plane just hours before it crashed near the McDowell/Rutherford county line, killing all three aboard.

North Carolina State Highway Patrol troopers say the pilot, Adam Plummer, and two passengers, Scott George and Charles Mather Jr., were killed when a Cessna 182 crash-landed in a remote area in Rutherford County. All three were residents of South Carolina.

It was a shock to Hutchinson, who said he and his friends had always wanted to go skydiving and had trouble finding the right time to go. For Hutchinson’s bachelor trip, they were all able to get to get together to finally go.

That led them to start their Sunday at the Johnson County Airport in Mountain City, Tennessee. He described it as a small airport with maybe 10 or 12 planes.

“Our instructors and the pilot flew in and we got to meet them and they walked us through everything, made us comfortable. They were super great,” he said.

He said that they had to split up because of how small the plane was and that he remembered going up with instructor Scott George, one of the three whose lives were lost in the crash.

“The instructor that I jumped with said ‘How does it feel? You just jumped out of a plane, a once-in-a-lifetime experience,'” he said.

Then, what was an incredible memory turned somber when Hutchinson said he saw the news the next morning.

At first, he said he did not think much of it. But when he saw the airport the plane left from, he looked up the tail number and realized it was the same plane they had been on.

“I had told my friends and it crushed us,” he said. “Those were the people that we had just met less than 12 hours ago and now they’re not here.”

He described the crew as “world-class people.”

“They were great at what they do. They were super relatable and they were just fun to be around. You could tell they were full of joy, and they had a great time doing what they were doing,” he said.

He felt like that experience connected them, and that it is something he will always remember.

“I mean, every person they jump with, that’s a huge deal to that person, and it’s just crazy how much they impacted me because that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done,” he said.

While Hutchinson was only able to spend a few hours with them, he said that he will always remember the way they lived their lives to the fullest and the impact they had on an experience he will always remember.

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