Plane Headed For Ft. Pierce Crashes When Taking Off From Charleston. All Are Confirmed Dead.
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Tragedy struck again Wednesday for a small airplane and its passengers. Federal authorities said four people were killed when a small plane headed to Fort Pierce, FL, crashed Wednesday shortly after departure in South Carolina. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the Piper PA-23 was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. The aircraft crashed shortly after departure at 6:45 a.m.
Bergen said the plane was headed to St. Lucie County Airport in Fort Pierce. The pilot has been identified the pilot as Peter Radding of North Charleston, S.C. One of Radding’s neighbors, Jim Deaton, told The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., that Radding had planned to stop in Florida, pick up more passengers, then head to the Bahamas.
It’s the second four-person, fatal crash in the Southeast. On Sept.20, a Piper PA-32R Saratoga plunged into the Everglades killing pilot Bruce Barber, his wife, son and a family friend. It was the "fourth fatal accident at the (Dorchester, SC) airport in recent years" according to Jason Ward, a Dorchester Counter Administrator who commented on the investigation.
Radding had 40 years of flight experience, and, like Barber, was described as very meticulous with his airplane. The front seat passenger in Radding's plane, James Randolph Hargenrader, was also a licensed pilot. National Transportation and Safety Bureau officials were expected on the scene late Wednesday. There had been no public speculation by officials as to the cause of the crash by late Wednesday afternoon. Radding was reputed to be an excellent pilot, and "volunteered to fly mercy air ambulance trips and introduced young people to flying".
One is left to wonder in an accident like this, where there are experienced pilots and (for now) a seemingly maintained aircraft, how does something like this happen. The trouble with airplane crashes, is the fuel generally causes tremendous damage to the remaining parts, and essentially wipes out evidence of what went wrong. Meanwhile, the family members who are left, are devastated by the accident, and all the questions remaining. It seems a difficult decision to make, but allowing the FAA do do the only investigation on the aircraft may result in more questions than answers, which is why experts are retained to perform an "oversight" of the inspection, particularly in the hours and days immediately following the crash, which is when most of the information is gleamed.