
A military plane that plummeted onto a Georgia highway on Wednesday was on its final flight after more than 60 years of service, it has been revealed along with the identities of the nine crew who died.

The ageing C-130 Hercules, part of Puerto Rico's National Guard fleet that assisted with relief efforts after Hurricane Irma, was being flown for retirement in Arizona when it nosedived next to Port Wentworth at 11.30am.

The pilot of the plane - which had received 'days' of maintenance before the crash - was identified as Major José Rafael Román, 43, who hails from the coastal town of Manati along Puerto Rico's north coast.

The mayor of that town, Jose Sanchez, said Román had two young boys and his wife is five months pregnant with a girl. 'The town is in mourning,' Sanchez said. 'My condolences to all Puerto Rican families.'

Román's childhood friend said he had raised concerns about the age of the planes the National Guard were using. 'He told me, 'We're using the oldest planes of the entire United States of America,'' Narvaez recalled.

The serviceman worked at a company that manufactured aluminum windows before joining the National Guard in the mid-2000s after graduating as a pilot in Memphis, Tennessee. He stayed for 18 years.

Jeremy Román, his pilot's youngest son, said in a statement that he was extremely proud of his father: 'You're a hero, and you're my hero, and I want everyone to know I'm very proud of you.'

The other eight victims, who were all from Puerto Rico, have now been officially named as David Albandoz, Carlos Pérez Serra, Jan Paravisini, Jean Audriffred, Víctor Colón, Mario Braña, Eric Circuns and Roberto Espada.

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The pilot of the plane, Major José Rafael Román, 43, who hails from the coastal town of Manati along Puerto Rico's north coast, is pictured along with unidentified crewmembers on another flight

Roberto Espada and Víctor Colón were also named as crewmembers of the C-130 Hercules that crashed on Wednesday

The co-pilot was identified as David Albandoz (left) and the loadmaster as Eric Circuns. All the victims' families have been informed

Mechanic Jan Paravisini (left, with an unidentified woman) and flight engineer Mario Braña were also named as victims by the National Guard

Pilot of the doomed plane José Román sits in the cockpit of a stunt plane at an airfield in this undated photo taken from social media

Puerto Rico National Guard members Victor Colón and and flight engineer Mario Braña are pictured in undated photos sourced online

Crewmember Roberto Espada is pictured left cutting an unknown National Guard recruit's hair on Puerto Rico

First Lt. David Albandoz, the co-pilot, had served for 16 years and was survived by his wife and daughter.

Navigator Maj. Carlos Pérez Serra, from Canóvanas, had been with the military for 23 years and had a wife, two sons and daughter.

The mechanic, Senior Master Sgt. Jan Paravisini, was from the same town and had two daughters and a son. He had served for 21 years.

Master Sgt. Jean Audriffred, from Carolina, had a wife and two sons and had been in the military for 16 years, while Master Sgt. Víctor Colón, from Santa Isabel had served for 22 years and had a wife and two daughters.

The flight engineer, Master Sgt. Mario Braña, was from Bayamón and had been with the National Guard for 17 years. He is survived by his mother and daughter.

Meanwhile, the loadmaster Master Sergeant Eric Circuns, from Rio Grande, had been with the military for 31 years and was survived by his wife, two step-daughters and son.

Senior Airman Roberto Espada had been with the National Guard for three years. He was from Salinas and is survived by his grandmother.

The fiery crash took place moments after the plane took off from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, where it had received maintenance for 'a number of days'.

A military officer said on Thursday that investigators were on the scene, but he offered no preliminary findings

'It's extremely important for us to understand what has happened,' said Col. Pete Boone, vice commander of the 165th Airlift Wing of the Georgia Air National Guard. He said investigators would use 'every resource at our disposal to properly identify a cause.'

Surveillance footage filmed from a business near the site shows the aircraft nose-diving and disappearing from view behind some buildings before a huge cloud of fire and smoke erupts.

Witnesses said the plane's sudden descent suggested its engine had stalled after take-off, although this has not been confirmed by experts.

The aircraft was flying to the Aerospace Regeneration and Maintenance Group in Arizona, nicknamed 'the Boneyard', which holds thousands of old military planes and spacecraft.

All nine crew members were Puerto Ricans who had helped with hurricane recovery efforts as part of the 198th Fighter Squadron, known as the Bucaneros, which flies out of Base Muniz in the northern coastal city of Carolina.

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.

'Nine crew members died in the accident, but until their families and relatives are notified, we cannot give their names,' said Brigadier General Isabelo Rivera, the assistant general of Puerto Rico.

Rivera said it was 'not news' Puerto Rico had the oldest planes on inventory nationwide and said his force often faced delays receiving deliveries of spare parts from the mainland. He claimed the aircraft was more than 60 years old, although his counterpart in Georgia denied this.

Terrifying surveillance footage from a local business filmed the National Guard C-130 as it nose-dived on Wednesday not long after taking off from Savannah Hilton Head Airport. Video courtesy of WTOC

The ageing C-130 Hercules was on its final flight to a demonissioning centre in Tuscon, Arizona. After it vanished, a plume of fire and smoke wafted up from behind the buildings

This was the aftermath on the highway after the plane went down. It was entirely destroyed and debris was scattered across the four lanes and beyond

A firetruck sprays foam over the remains of an Air National Guard C-130 cargo plane from Puerto Rico on Wednesday morning

The plane took off from Puerto Rico before having repairs at Savannah International Airport. It then crashed 15 miles away after taking off the a decommissioning centre in Tuscon, Arizona

President 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'

An investigation into the crash is being carried out by the National Guard Bureau and the Air Force. The National Transportation Safety Board will not take part.

'The explosion, it was indescribable. It covered all 4 lanes and more. There was just a huge fireball of God knows what

The huge plane came down so hard that the only part still intact was its tail section, with debris scattered around a 600 feet area. Officials called it 'miraculous' that the plane did not hit any cars.

The fuselage appeared to have struck the median, and pieces of its wings, which spanned 132 feet, were littered across lanes in both directions.

Motorists who were driving at the time got out of their vehicles to frantically look for survivors afterwards and filmed themselves going through the woods to try to find anyone who had made it out alive.

One witness described the 'fireball' explosion which occurred seconds after the plane hit the ground.

'The explosion, it was indescribable. It covered all 4 lanes and more. There was just a huge fireball of God knows what,' the man, who was not named, told Fox 5.

Drivers who were heading southbound on the highway watched as the plane crashed in their path then, once it had hit the ground, abandoned their vehicles to look for survivors

The plane (pictured on Wednesday) was flying to the Aerospace Regeneration and Maintenance Group in Arizona, nicknamed 'the Boneyard', which holds thousands of old military planes and spacecraft

Emergency services are pictured working at Highway 21 in Savannah after the crash on Wednesday. There are not thought to have been any survivors

The tail of the C-130 was the only visible part of the plane that was intact following the collision on the busy highway, which amazingly did not harm any motorists

C-130 Hercules: Vintage military cargo plane with a 132ft-wingspan built to ferry troops in the Korean War The C-130 Hercules was designed by Lockheed Martin after the United States Air Force asked manufacturers to produce a new plane for transporting troops in the Korean War. The first model entered service on August 23 1954 with a capacity of 92 passengers, 72 combat troops or 64 paratroopers in a 41 feet-long and 9-feet wide interior. The C-130 is a four engine turboprop military transport plane with a payload of 45,000lbs. It is considerable in size at 92ft long and with a wingspan of 132ft. Designed for use on unprepared runways, the C-130 quickly became used for disaster relief and search and rescue by the US and its allies including Britain and Australia. The C-130 plane that crashed on Wednesday had been operating with the Puerto Rican National Guard for more than 60 years. Brigadier General Isabelo Rivera said the island had the oldest inventory of planes in the whole National Guard. The plane was a Lockheed C-130 Hercules which is a four-engine turboprop military plane with a wingspan of 132ft. It is 92ft long and has a payload of 45,000lbs. A file image of a C-130 is shown above Advertisement

Chelsea Sinclair, who works at a nearby Parker's, told local newspaper The News Observer: 'It went nose-first down. We were seeing a bunch of black smoke.'

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 explosion, it was indescribable. It covered all 4 lanes and more. There was just a huge fireball of God knows what

Huge plumes of black smoke billowed from the crash site on Wednesday morning. The incident happened around 15 miles from Savannah's airport

This was the view of the road for motorists as they drove towards the crash. One, whose pictures are shown above, started filming after it had hit the ground

Drivers who got out of their cars after watching in horror as the plane crash searched for survivors on the train tracks next to the road. One bystander filmed her partner (right) as the group yelled: 'Is there anybody out there' towards the bushes and woodland

The C-130 is a four engine turboprop military transport plane with a payload of 45,000lbs. It is considerable in size at 92ft long and with a wingspan of 132ft.

Discussing the crash at a press conference on Wednesday, National Guard Master Sgt. Roger Parsons said: 'Anytime we lose any of our brother and sisters in arms it's devastating.

'It's something we never like to have happen, but were still here to do a job and to continue on with the missions we have to do.'

The US military has been rocked by a string of aviation accidents in recent weeks, including an F-16 crash near Las Vegas last month that killed the pilot.

Just a day earlier, four crew members died when a Marine Corps helicopter crashed while on a routine training mission in Southern California.

And in Djibouti, two incidents triggered the grounding of US military flights.

According to the Military Times, accidents involving the military's manned aircraft rose nearly 40 percent from fiscal years 2013 to 2017.

The publication found the rise coincided with budget cuts from 2013, which impacted training and readiness, as well as heavy wear and tear on aircraft from back-to-back deployments.

The crash happened next to a train track and over a wooded area which caught fire as a result of the burning debris