Business Owner Reacts To Plane Crash

SIOUX FALLS, SD - Workers at a nearby business saw the immediate aftermath of the crash unfold from their front window.

Auto Body Specialties is located less than a mile northwest of the crash site.

The flaming wreckage of the plane is a sight that workers there won't soon forget. A slow day at the office was interrupted by the fiery commotion just downhill from Auto Body Specialties.


"It was very quiet today and this kind of livened things up and it's like well now we're not trying to fall asleep anymore, we're trying to learn everything we can," Auto Body Specialties salesman Steve Wissink said.

At first, many people inside the business thought the smoke and flames they were witnessing were part of a grass fire.

"It kind of looked like kind of a controlled burn going on down there and we looked closer and we could see the tail section and a couple of windows of an airplane, so we thought oh, my God," Wissink said.

Soon, it began to sink in that they were watching a tragedy unfold.

"First thing I thought, oh no, people might have perished and it's like that's terrible and lots of different thoughts and how did it happen, and why is there something wrong," Wissink said.

The Auto Body Specialties employees realize how close they too, came to an air disaster.

"It's terrible what happened, but in other words, I'm thankful it didn't happen to us, too," Wissink said.

One worker at nearby J and L Harley Davidson said he was alerted to the crash when he saw a flock of geese suddenly fly away from where the plane went down.