A 74-year-old man died after a plane crashed in Payette County Saturday. Monday afternoon he was identified as Prescott "Gene" E. Wilkie of Payette.
Dispatchers received a call at 11:40 a.m. Saturday, about a plane that had crashed around N.E. 19th Avenue between Payette Heights and Scotchpines Road, about one mile north of the Payette Airport.
"I was just hoping that he was alright, but he wasn't," Kenneth Lisby said.
Lisby lives near the airport and he said he saw the plane disappear.
"There were two pieces falling out of the sky, and the plane sputtered a little bit and didn't make another sound - just disappeared," he said.
He was doing yard work with his wife when they noticed something wasn’t right.
"Right over the house and started to circle around, and all of a sudden my wife said, 'there's something going on with that plane,'” he said.
Not long after, he said fire engines raced down his street, heading in the direction he saw the plane disappear.
Lisby doesn’t know the victim but said seeing that plane go down is something that will stick with him.
"I've been thinking about it ever since. You just can't shake it,” he said. "Life is awfully frail."
Payette County deputies and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.