Plane crash leaves coach in hospital

WILSON, N.Y. (WIVB) - We now know the names of the pilot and five skydivers injured when their plane crashed seconds after take-off in Niagara County.

The news is not any worse on Monday, in fact, five of the six people on that plane have been released from the hospital.

Niagara County Sheriff James Voutour said, "We look at the pieces and the parts and the way it was broken up and we couldn't believe anybody was still alive."

Sheriff Voutour was on the scene Sunday afternoon when the small plane crashed shortly after take off from Hollands Airfield on Beebe Road in the town of Wilson. Five of the six people on board have been treated and released from the ECMC: the pilot, Paul Gath of Arcade; Tonya Tiede of Batavia; Chrisitan Herboth of North Tonawanda; Joseph King of Elma; and Michael Maly Jr. of Cheektowaga; are home.

But Frontier Skydiver Coach, 53-year-old Thomas "Toma" Medbury, is still in critical condition.

"With severe trauma to the head, spine, back," said Voutour.

This is actual video from the same plane a few years ago. Two News 4 staffers jumped out of the Cessna 185, which seats six people. This is the view shortly after take-off back then, and gives us an idea of the point where it went down after the plane experienced trouble, 40 feet off the ground.

John Huber of the Frontier Skydivers Club said, "It was a former mountain rescue plane that he purchased, so it already had jump experience in it, so he purchased it and we rented it from him."

Huber says it served the club very well for the past three years. The pilot, Paul Gath, has 30 years of flying experience.

"We've never had a plane crash here at Frontier. We had bumps and bruises with people that land, twisted ankles, occasionally a broken ankle, but those are very rare as well as far as the number of dives they do, very limited," said Voutour.

The Federal Aviation Administration has been on the scene on Monday investigating, but officials have not announced a cause of the crash yet.