The Calhoun County emergency services director said a search for signs of a possible airplane ended after the Civil Air Patrol reported that a satellite signal may have been accidentally tripped instead.

The search began after the county received a report that a satellite picked up a "ping" at about 7:10 p.m. Friday night from Calhoun County that may have come from a downed plane, according to Calhoun County Emergency Services Director Bill Minikiewicz.

"It curiously stopped. At 11:17 p.m., the Civil Air Patrol ceased receiving the signal. They assume that there was no emergency. They think it was an accidental trip or something," Minikiewicz said Saturday.

While the Federal Aviation Administration had no reports of a plane crash, the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office, Search and Rescue, Emergency Medical Services, three fire departments and Lexington County emergency workers were all set out to see if they could find evidence of a plane crash to be on the safe side.

"If they had told us this (Saturday) morning that they were still getting hits and could have triangulated it (the signal) a little better, we would have had search parties with ATVs ... out there looking. We're not gonna have to do that now," he said.

Minikiewicz had said that the "ping" could have been caused by several things, including a device carried by a hunter or on a boat. A pilot may have also accidentally tripped the device, which alerts emergency workers of an impact, he said.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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