Plane crash in St. Joseph County

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A small plane crashed onto the frozen St. Joseph River Tuesday evening.

"I let my dog out of the back door, looked up in the sky and there was a plane on its way down," said Courtney Feister, "and I seen it basically fell right out of the sky onto the ice."

Feister was the first person on the scene to help two people out of the plane.

Rescue teams from several agencies quickly responded to the scene of the crash and all the occupants of the plane, Fred Nelson and his son Fred Jr. as well as their Sheltie dog named Charlie, made it out without a scratch.

The Nelsons were on their way back from Texas after taking a fishing trip there. Fred Sr. is from Allegan, Fred Jr. is from Vicksburg, the family owns Fred's Pharmacies in Allegan and Vicksburg.

Their plane crashed just off the edge of a residential neighborhood near M-60, close to the airport and not far from downtown Three Rivers.

We're still working to discover exactly what happened, but preliminary reports indicate that bad weather forced the plane down.

Neither man on the plane wanted to speak to the media, but they did speak to JoAnn Benoit. She opened her home to the men for about two hours after the crash so that they could warm up by the fire. Benoit said they had no visible injuries and seemed to be in good spirits. She said even the dog was fine, and played with her cats.

"They were scared," Benoit said with a laugh, "they were nervous and they were upset and I don't blame them. Their plane could have caught on fire or something."

The plane is still on the ice as investigators try and make their way to the area, Newschannel 3 has been told that the NTSB should have investigators on the scene, if not by Tuesday night, then first thing Wednesday.