TABOR CITY, N.C. (WBTW) — A federal agency’s preliminary report on a June 14 plane crash that killed a South Carolina couple in Tabor City focuses heavily on the pilot’s concerns about stormy weather as he prepared to land in North Myrtle Beach.
Philip Porter, 69, and his wife Cheryle, 66, were killed when their twin-engine Beechcraft went down near Old Dothan Road, near the Horry County border with North Carolina. The couple left the Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport at about 11:30 a.m., according to FAA records, and was trying to land at Grand Strand Airport. Radar contact was lost at 12:44 p.m.
NTSB plane crash reportDownload
The National Transportation Safety Board report said the pilot was in contact with a Myrtle Beach air-traffic controller, who asked if he had the correct weather information. After being instructed to descend to 4,000 feet, the report said the pilot asked for a different heading because it looked like they would be heading “straight into” bad weather.
As the pilot was preparing to make an instrument landing, another controller “approved additional deviations,” allowing the plane to avoid heavy precipitation near the airport, the report said. A short time later, the pilot abandoned the approach and asked to divert to Florence Regional Airport to avoid the bad weather, and was given a new heading…