North Myrtle Beach plane showed no signs of trouble before crash that killed 5, report says

Shortly before an airplane crashed into a wooded area near a North Myrtle Beach golf course earlier this month, witnesses said it appeared to have difficultly gaining altitude and looked wobbly in the sky.

Those are among the details included in a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report issued July 18 — nearly two weeks after the incident.

After noting its erratic flight patterns, a witness told investigators the single-engine Piper PA-32 disappeared a short time later behind trees, followed by the sound of an impact and immediate fireball.

All five people aboard, aged between 7 and 66, perished — four on scene and a fifth later in the day at an area hospital.

The NTSB didn’t offer a cause for what might have made the pilot, 66-year-old Joseph Farnese, lose control of the plane.

Farnese died in the crash, along with Sean Gardner, 7; Odaycia Edwards, 17; Tanique Cheu, 32; and Suzette Coleman-Edwards, 42, all of East Orange, New Jersey.

Winds were blowing at four knots with 10 miles of visibility when the plane crashed at around 11:15 a.m. on Pete Dye Drive at Barefoot Resort and Golf.

“There were no visible or audible indications of any engine issues. As the airplane continued the takeoff, it turned right while still at a low altitude, slow speed, and without gaining additional altitude,” NTSB investigator-in-charge Eric Alleyne wrote in his report.

The NTSB said occupants were headed back to their home state of New Jersey after a weekend vacation in South Carolina.

“On the day of the accident, surveillance video at CRE (Grand Strand Airport) recorded a portion of the airplane’s takeoff. The video revealed that the airplane climbed from the runway at a shallow ascent, with a nose high pitch altitude, until it was out of the camera’s view,” the report states.

Authorities said the plane’s major components were recovered at the scene as the incident remains under investigation.

This story was originally published July 18, 2023 at 5:00 PM.