Beaufort pilot survived plane nosediving into pond; cited ‘engine failure,’ new report says
A Beaufort-based pilot is in recovery after her private plane crash landed during a flight from Beaufort Executive Airport early this January. She declared an emergency due to “engine failure” just before the aircraft plummeted into a pond in rural Colleton County, according to a preliminary investigation report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Theresa McDonald, 56, lifted off for a solo flight in her Piper PA-28R-201 Cherokee around 10:54 a.m. on Jan. 2, climbing to about 2,800 feet before a sudden descent and left turn, according to surveillance data. Hearing of the engine malfunction, an air traffic controller at the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort offered “forced landing options” that the pilot rejected “due to time.”
Flight systems lost track of the plane around 11:07 that morning as the descent went on. About three minutes later, McDonald’s plane nosedived into a small pond on private property about 12 miles south of Green Pond.
The accident was witnessed firsthand by the property owner, who ran to the crash site and called first responders. After emergency personnel and bystanders removed the unconscious pilot from the plane, she was airlifted to the trauma center at Charleston’s Medical University of South Carolina with serious injuries.
The NTSB report says McDonald was certified to fly a single-engine plane as a private pilot and had declared 300 hours of total flight experience. Her plane was manufactured in 2003 and passed an annual inspection in November 2023.
Investigators noted “substantial damage” to the aircraft’s engine compartment, firewall and cockpit areas, although there was no evidence of fire. The plane was recovered by the NTSB for further examination.
McDonald was unavailable for an interview with the NTSB due to her injuries, the report says, so her husband provided a “detailed written account” of the morning’s events on her behalf.
This story was originally published February 2, 2024 at 4:12 PM.
