There were no distress calls from the pilot of a Pilatus PC-12 before it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Beaufort, North Carolina, about 2 p.m. on February 13, according to an NTSB preliminary report. All eight aboard—the commercial pilot, student pilot, and six passengers—were killed. The turboprop single was operating VFR under Part 91.
The approximately 30-minute flight was marked by unanswered or delayed responses by the pilot to ATC calls, altitude excursions, penetration of an active restricted area, and flying below an assigned altitude. Queried by the controller for not responding to earlier radio calls about entering the restricted area, the pilot replied he “was trying to get out” and was unable to receive the transmissions.
In the final few seconds of the ill-fated flight, the controller issued the local altimeter setting because the airplane was 2,000 feet below the assigned IAF crossing altitude for the RNAV approach into Beaufort Michael J. Smith Field. But then the airplane started climbing rapidly. The controller called the pilot and asked to report his altitude because radar showed the airplane at 4,700 feet msl and “climbing quickly.” There was no response and radar contact was lost.
The airplane crashed about three miles offshore in about 60 feet of water. Dive crews recovered an ELT and a flight data recorder.