Engine issues preceded fatal plane crash near Siler City airport, FAA says
Engine problems preceded a fatal plane crash near Siler City Municipal Airport on Friday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a preliminary report Monday.
The aircraft crashed about 12:45 p.m. Friday, landing in a wooded area and catching fire, the FAA reported. Flight instructor McMillan Abernathy, of Beech Mountain, and student Justin Strauss, of Raleigh, were killed in the crash.
Abernathy, who attended Lenoir-Rhyne University, had celebrated his 25th birthday less than a week before. Strauss was studying air transportation at Ohio State University.
Executive Flight Training and Services, a flight school in Lee County, owned the aircraft, a 1969 Piper PA-28. It left Raleigh Executive Jetport in Sanford, 24 miles away, at 12:29 p.m.
“I pursued teaching to help others obtain their goals,” Abernathy wrote in his bio on the flight school’s website.
James Crouse, an aviation attorney who has studied more than 500 flight crashes, told The News & Observer the Piper PA-28 is frequently used as a training plane and doesn’t generally have safety issues.
Executive Flight Training and Services did not respond to a Monday phone call for comment. It is not an FAA-certified, Part-141 flight school, meaning it is not required to use a structured training program and syllabus. Still, it must follow minimum flight hours and other requirements before issuing students their pilot’s certificates.
This story was originally published June 17, 2024 at 11:05 AM with the headline "Engine issues preceded fatal plane crash near Siler City airport, FAA says."
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