Two Were Aboard a Rockwell Turbo Commander On A Proficiency Flight

A South Carolina telecommunications executive and his flight instructor were fatally injured last Thursday when the 1977 Rockewell International Turbo Commander 269B they were flying went down in an unused rice field near McClellanville, SC, northeast of Charleston.

Patrick Eudy, the plane's owner and the founder, president, and CEO of American Broadband of Matthews, NC, was working towards renewing his certification to fly the Turbo Commander. The flight instructor was Rubert Ulrich, according to the Associated Press.

The flight departed Charleston Executive Airport on Johns Island (KJZI) Thursday afternoon at about 1630 local time. The accident reportedly occurred about 1700. The Charleston Post and Currier newspaper reports that the FAA and NTSB said witnesses indicated the plane was "spiraling towards the ground" prior to impact. A caller to the Charleston County dispatcher said "The motor of the plane was acting up, then we heard a crash." NTSB investigators said the plane impacted the ground at a nose-down angle of about 45 degrees.

The pilots on board the plane did not declare an emergency before the accident happened. Among the last transmissions from the airplane was a request to do "air work" at between FL130 and FL150 about 1646 EDT.

(Turbo Commander pictured in file photo. Not accident airplane.)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov