SOUTHPORT, N.C. — A pilot was killed when a single-engine plane crashed into a home a few blocks from an airport in coastal North Carolina on Sunday, June 25, and three people in the home escaped without injury, officials said.
Firefighters found the plane fully engulfed in flames, with the exterior of the home burning, too, Southport Fire Chief Charles Drew said in a social media post. The people in the home at the time got out on their own, and the fire was contained within 15 minutes, he said.
The plane had taken off from nearby Cape Fear Regional Jetport, Drew said. Only the pilot was aboard the Mooney M20R when it left the airport at 4:15 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. A preliminary FAA report showed the pilot was killed.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
Airport Director Howie Franklin said staffers told him that the pilot radioed about five minutes into the flight saying he wanted to come back, the Wilmington Star-News reported.
“But he didn’t make it,” Franklin said.
On July 13, the NTSB released its preliminary report on the investigation. It found that the airplane was last in for maintenance in October 2022, when the pilot had requested the mechanic troubleshoot interior lighting, service brakes, attach a standby vacuum hose, and fix an exhaust leak.
The report says the mechanic was unable to finish the work as the engine had dead batteries and would not start. The mechanic inspected the batteries and determined they were unairworthy and not the right batteries for the system of the airplane. The report says the pilot asked the mechanic to reinstall the incorrect batteries, and the mechanic refused and said the plane was unairworthy without the necessary repairs.