On Mar 16, 5:37*am, Mark wrote:
First, he's leaking oil and can't see out the windshield.

Then, his propeller came off? * Strange.

Still, awesome airplane.

--
Mark

Plane hits, kills man along Hilton Head, SC, beach
© 2010 The Associated Press
March 15, 2010, 11:36PM

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BuzzFacebookStumbleUponHILTON HEAD, S.C. — A single-engine plane with
oil on its windshield struck and killed a man on a Hilton Head beach
Monday afternoon as the pilot was attempting to make an emergency
landing, authorities said.

The man was walking or jogging along Palmetto Dunes when the
Experimental Lancair IV-P plane hit him, said Hilton Head Island fire
and rescue spokeswoman Joheida (Joh-HI'-da) Fister.

The plane started leaking oil at about 13,000 feet and tried
originally to make it to Hilton Head Airport, Fister said. The oil on
the windshield blocked the pilot's vision and he told authorities the
propeller came off the plane. When he tried to land on the beach near
the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa, the plane hit the beachgoer
and came to rest a little farther down the beach, she said.

"I would have to say it's pretty unusual," Fister said.

The names of the man killed, pilot and passenger on the plane were not
released.

The pilot, Edward I. Smith of Chesapeake, Va., and his lone passenger
both walked away from the crash landing near the Hilton Head Marriott
Resort and Spa.

Robert Gary Jones was a pharmaceutical salesman on a business trip,
looking forward to getting home to celebrate his daughter's third
birthday. He was enjoying a moment to himself on this resort island,
jogging on the beach and listening to his iPod.

Officials say the Woodstock, Ga., man neither saw nor heard what
struck him from behind Monday evening: A single-engine plane making an
emergency landing.



The plane left Orlando at 4:45 p.m. and was headed for Virginia,
Fister said. The plane has a turbine engine and can fly up to 370 mph,
according to the Lancair Web site.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation
Safety Board were investigating, Fister said. A call late Monday to an
FAA spokeswoman was not immediately returned.