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reprint or license thisProbe seeks cause of deadly plane crash
Pilot, 2 passengers died as Cessna went down Thursday near airport
By RICK BRUNDRETT
rbrundrett@thestate.com
The crash of a small plane Thursday night that killed three Columbia-area men is a mystery investigators will try to figure out today.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigator will review air traffic controller tapes and inspect the wreckage of the Cessna 182, an agency spokesman said Friday.
The pilot, Bernard Stanek Jr., 57, of Columbia, and passengers Len Lovette, 71, of Hopkins, and Nathan Derek Faulkenberry, 34, of Columbia, died instantly of multiple trauma, Lexington County Coroner Harry Harman said.
Thursday’s crash near Columbia Metropolitan Airport was the 13th fatal aircraft crash in the Columbia area since 1966, NTSB records show.
The four-seat, single-engine plane crashed about 11:30 p.m. in woods off Old Barnwell Road, though a State Law Enforcement Division helicopter didn’t spot the wreckage until about 6:45 a.m. Friday, authorities said.
The helicopter couldn’t be sent sooner because of fog, said Lexington County sheriff’s spokesman Maj. John Allard. Deputies on foot and on all-terrain vehicles searched the area during the night but couldn’t locate the wreckage.
“It’s just a heavily wooded area with dense undergrowth and rough terrain,” said Columbia Metropolitan Airport Director Mike Flack. “It’s not like there was this huge crash. There was no fire, no explosion.”
“If there were a fire, we would have found it a lot earlier,” Allard said.
The crash surprised several homeowners living near the airport. Even those whose live within a few hundred yards of the crash said they didn’t hear it.
The few who did thought the noise was a car wreck, although one wondered if a plane had crash-landed.
A Lexington County bulldozer cut a path to the wreck. Harman said coroners reached the site late Friday morning but couldn’t immediately enter the plane because of the damage. The doors had to be cut open to reach the victims.
Autopsies will be performed, Harman said, though he didn’t know when.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, with help from the Federal Aviation Administration, said NTSB public affairs director Ted Lopatkiewicz. Representatives from Cessna and the plane’s engine manufacturer also likely will assist.
Lopatkiewicz didn’t know whether the pilot had reported any problems with the plane or weather immediately before the crash. He said an NTSB investigator wouldn’t be able to review air traffic controller tapes until Friday evening at the earliest.
The plane reportedly was en route from Newport News, Va., to Owens Field in downtown Columbia but was diverted to Columbia Metropolitan Airport near Springdale and Cayce because of fog, Flack said.
The pilot reportedly was using the plane’s instrument-landing system — not flying visually — when he missed an approach to Owens Field and was instructed to proceed to Columbia Metropolitan Airport, Lopatkiewicz said. The plane disappeared from radar and broke off radio contact at 11:36 p.m.
The wreckage was found about three-quarters of a mile from Columbia Metropolitan’s Runway No. 11, where the plane was supposed to land, Lopatkiewicz said.
It was not immediately known how much experience the pilot had in instrument-panel flying. Lopatkiewicz said the plane recently had been purchased.
The Cessna was built in 1976 and registered to Four Seasons LLC of Wilmington, Del., according to an FAA database.
A flight-tracking Web site, flightaware.com, said the plane took off from the Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport about 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
FAA Southern Region spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the flight plan on file showed Owens Field as the plane’s destination.
The plane initially left Owens Field about 8:30 a.m. Thursday for Rock Hill’s airport, staying on the ground there for almost four hours before flying on to Newport News-Williamsburg, according to the Web site. It stayed in Virginia about six hours before returning to Columbia.
After the plane disappeared from radar, the FAA immediately called Columbia Metropolitan personnel, who then contacted the Sheriff’s Department, Allard said, adding that SLED also was quickly notified.
But the SLED helicopter couldn’t be sent until seven hours later because of the fog. It spotted the wreckage a short time after getting airborne, he said.
Several agencies assisted in the search and other tasks at the scene, including Lexington County EMS, the county fire service, Columbia Metropolitan’s police and fire services, the Cayce Department of Public Safety and the Springdale and South Congaree police departments.
Staff writers Tim Flach, Noelle Phillips and Kelly Davis contributed. Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484.
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