Plane Kills Man Jogging on Beach

A small plane making an emergency crash landing on a South Carolina beach last night struck and killed a jogger, authorities say. The 38-year-old Georgia man was listening to his iPod and probably could not hear the single-engine aircraft, which was operating without power. Oil leaking onto the windshield hampered the vision of the pilot and passenger, who were headed from Orlando to Norfolk when their Lancair IV-P developed engine trouble.

The plane then lost its propeller. Air-traffic controllers told the pilot to land at Hilton Head Airport, but the plane fell about 3 miles short. Just before it landed on the beach near the Palmetto Dunes resort, it struck the jogger from behind. "It was obvious that the engine had gone out because there was no sound—it was like a glider,” a witness told the Island Packet of Hilton Head. “It was awful."
(More airplane stories.)