4 die in small plane crash near Charleston SC

(AP) JEDBURG, S.C. - A small plane crashed shortly after departure and burst into flames early Wednesday morning in South Carolina, killing four friends heading to an amateur radio convention in the Bahamas.

The plane climbed above the trees to between 100 and 150 feet in the air before something caused it to make a sharp U-turn and then crash into a wooded area near the Summerville airport, not far from the coast, Dorchester County Coroner Chris Nesbit said.

Nesbit identified the dead as the pilot and plane’s owner, Peter Radding of North Charleston, and passengers Edwin Steeble and James Randolph Hargenrader, both of Summervile. The fourth victim was from Delaware, but Nesbit didn’t release other information because his family had not been contacted.

The twin-engine Piper PA-23, which seats six and was built in 1976, crashed around 6:20 a.m. and was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived at the scene in a rural area northwest of Jedburg, Dorchester County Administrator Jason Ward said. Investigators were hindered by the flaming wreckage and "charred foliage" at the scene.

The men were flying to Fort Pierce, Fla., and then on to the Bahamas for a ham radio convention, Nesbit said.

Radding had been flying for 40 years, and Hargenrader was also a licensed pilot, he said.

"They had taken this flight before," Nesbit said. "It wasn’t like they had never flown before."

The crash site is off airport property, and the airport is located in a rural area about 25 miles north of Charleston with a few homes, some farm land and industrial sites.

Stella Bazzle, who lives about a half-mile from the crash site, said the plane’s motor was roaring and didn’t sound right as it passed near her house.

"It was kind of a funny noise, a grinding noise, almost like a train type of thing," Bazzle said.

Then Bazzle, 66, heard what sounded like two explosions, the first one bigger than the second. She said she didn’t see any flames.

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Associated Press Writer Katrina A. Goggins contributed to this report from Columbia, S.C.