Man that was supposed to be picked up by plane that crashed shares his story

MARIETTA, Ohio (WTAP) - Lee Rector and his partner, Wayne Waldeck, were headed out the door Tuesday morning to the Wood County Airport when they heard the awful news.

A small plane they had chartered from Columbus to pick them up had crashed in Marietta.

“I got a message from our plane manager that the plane had crashed and I didn’t know what to think and at that time everybody was trying to figure out what was going on and he said not to come to the airport,” said Rector.

Lee and Wayne had flown with Eric Seevers and Timothy Gifford before. The two pilots died in the crash.

“It’s emotional. We are very emotional about what happened today and thank God that we are still here we lost two dear people that would really give us safety and we never had any fear of flying with these guys,” he said.

Lee says his heart goes out to their families.

“It’s so emotional and a lot of things going through your mind. The first thing I think of is the family and friends that wake up to this tragic situation and they figure you know gonna see your loved one or whatever at the end of the day and then that doesn’t happen,” he said.

Lee says he is grateful he is safe, but heartbroken about what happened.

“As one of our friends said, you are holding grief and relief in the same hands tonight and that is what we are doing,” he said.

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