• 18
  • March
    2010

A plane crash in South Carolina last week left one jogger dead and raised questions regarding the safety of private planes. It happened on

Robert Gary Jones, a pharmaceutical salesman from Georgia, was in Hilton Head on business and had decided to take a run on the beach. High above him and miles away, Edward Smith's airplane, a single-engine Lancair IV-P, began to leak oil and, shortly thereafter, lost its propeller.

As the small, personal airplane glided down for a crash landing, the leaking oil obscured Smith's view. With the motor shut down and the propeller gone, the aircraft was more or less noiseless. Added to this, Jones was listening to his iPod, making it even less likely that the plane would be heard.

It was a perfect storm of bad timing, mechanical error and inattentiveness. 

The plane crash killed Jones immediately, while Smith and his passenger were able to walk away - physically unharmed, but emotionally shaken.

The plane Smith was flying, a Lancair IV-P is a small, personal aircraft, which can be built from a kit. Personal planes, such as this, can be thrilling, but are also dangerous. While large, passenger planes gain the biggest share of attention - it is the smaller, personal crafts that are involved in most aviation accidents.

For example, last May, two individuals in California were killed when their small, experimental plane crashed in San Bernardino County. Again, earlier this year, three people were killed when their private plane crashed in Palo Alto, shortly after takeoff.

In most cases, these tragic plane crashes come down to issues of pilot error or mechanical failure. While the latter seems to be the case in South Carolina, the investigation is still underway.

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