FAA Investigating Erratic Flight Path Before Fatal Crash Of PC-12
All eight aboard the single-engine turboprop that crashed into the Atlantic are feared dead
A Pilatus PC-12 with eight aboard crashed into the Atlantic Ocean Sunday, February 13, 2022. A search has turned up a debris field, but so far only one of the eight aboard has been recovered. An FAA preliminary accident report lists the number onboard as seven, but multiple sources report that there were eight aboard the single-engine pressurized turboprop when it went down.
The plane had taken off from Hyde County, North Carolina, reportedly after a hunting trip with six of the occupants said to be young people. North Carolina has a special one-day hunting season for veterans and youths. The pilot is said to be a North Carolina businessman and hunting enthusiast, whom friends called a generous man.
A Coast Guard source told the Washington Post that they were first alerted to the crash Sunday afternoon by a Cherry Point Marine Air Station air traffic controller, who said the plane was behaving erratically before the mishap. It had only been airborne for 26 minutes when it crashed and had only climbed to around 4,500 feet.
Multiple vessels are involved in the search, which has been hampered by strong offshore currents that have moved debris from the crash up to 15 miles out to sea.
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