It's every pilot's nightmare. During an emergency landing on a Hilton Head, South Carolina, beach, an amateur-built Lancair IV-P struck and killed a pedestrian from behind as he walked the shoreline with headphones on, listening to music. Neither the pilot nor his passenger was injured, and the airplane ultimately came to rest in the surf. The Lancair first began to leak oil at 13,000 feet an hour and a half after takeoff on a flight from Orlando Executive Airport in Florida to Norfolk, Virginia. In contact with Marine controllers from Beaufort, South Carolina, the pilot initially tried to make it to Hilton Head Airport, but apparently the engine problem got much worse, with the propeller ultimately separating from the aircraft. The pilot reported that engine oil covered the windshield, and he never saw the beachcomber, a 38-year-old man from Georgia who was a guest at a Hilton Head resort adjacent to the beach. FAA records record the date of manufacture of the aircraft as 2009. Also according to FAA records, it was powered by a Continental 550-series engine, though some news accounts incorrectly reported it had a turbine engine (an option on the Lancair IV-P kit.)
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Re. the Hilton Head SC Lancair crash...
There is a difference between "surf" and beach. The only photo I've found shows clearly the Lancair resting on the beach at approximately the high part of the wet sand, not in the surf. Besides, we do not know where exactly the victim was when he was struck while jogging on the beach. We can assume he was not in the "surf," although he could have ended up there from the force of the blow, we don't know. My point is that the pilot, despite the oil on the windshield, sought to make an emergency, forced "landing" on the beach, and the photo shows the plane at rest on the sand. Even though the pilot had restricted visibility, the ocean is larger than the beach and he could have landed (ditched) in the shallow surf and possibly avoided hitting anyone, but there might have been swimmers or surfers. I'm just curious as to why your article stated the plane came to rest in the surf rather than on the beach. The tide quickly washed the plane up to the point where the photo was taken? Anyway, we pilots think about forced landings on beaches, roads, and any place we and our passengers can walk away. Thanks.
