COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The pilot of a small plane killed earlier this month in a crash near a South Carolina airport told air traffic controllers he missed the runway in foggy weather just before he crashed, federal investigators said.
Farhad Rostampour had just turned his plane away from the attempted landing when his wing hit a home about a half-mile (800 meters) from the Jim Hamilton–L.B. Owens Airport in Columbia, according to the preliminary report released Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Rostampour died in the crash as his plane broke apart and caught fire on Jan. 13, authorities said.
Rostampour took off from the Greenville Downtown Airport in his Beechcraft BE-33 about 30 minutes before the crash, according to the report.
Fog lowered visibility around the airport to a quarter-mile (400 meters) at the time of the crash, according to National Weather Service data.
Witnesses said the plane’s engines sounded normal just before it crashed, the report said.
Preliminary reports from the NTSB include facts about a crash, but not a determination of why a plane went down.
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