[WWYC] C6APR TEAM DIE ON PLANE CRASH.

[Oscar Eduardo Reyes Salazar]

4 die in small plane crash near Charleston SC
By BRUCE SMITH
(AP)
–
23 hours ago
JEDBURG, S.C. — A small plane crashed shortly after departure and
burst into flames early Wednesday morning in South Carolina, killing
four friends heading to an amateur radio convention in the Bahamas.
The
plane climbed above the trees to between 100 and 150 feet in the air
before something caused it to make a sharp U-turn and then crash into a
wooded area near the Summerville airport, not far from the coast,
Dorchester County Coroner Chris Nesbit said.
Nesbit identified
the dead as the pilot and plane's owner, Peter Radding of North
Charleston, and passengers Edwin Steeble and James Randolph
Hargenrader, both of Summervile. The fourth victim was from Delaware,
but Nesbit didn't release other information because his family had not
been contacted.
The twin-engine Piper PA-23, which seats six and
was built in 1976, crashed around 6:20 a.m. and was engulfed in flames
when firefighters arrived at the scene in a rural area northwest of
Jedburg, Dorchester County Administrator Jason Ward said. Investigators
were hindered by the flaming wreckage and "charred foliage" at the
scene.
The men were flying to Fort Pierce, Fla., and then on to the Bahamas for a ham radio convention, Nesbit said.
Radding had been flying for 40 years, and Hargenrader was also a licensed pilot, he said.
"They had taken this flight before," Nesbit said. "It wasn't like they had never flown before."
The
crash site is off airport property, and the airport is located in a
rural area about 25 miles north of Charleston with a few homes, some
farm land and industrial sites.
Stella Bazzle, who lives about a
half-mile from the crash site, said the plane's motor was roaring and
didn't sound right as it passed near her house.
"It was kind of a funny noise, a grinding noise, almost like a train type of thing," Bazzle said.
Then
Bazzle, 66, heard what sounded like two explosions, the first one
bigger than the second. She said she didn't see any flames.


Associated Press Writer Katrina A. Goggins contributed to this report from Columbia, S.C.


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