Pilot Killed in Rock Hill, SC Plane Crash Reported Landing Gear Problem, Report Says
The pilot killed in a small plane crash earlier this month in Rock Hill reported landing gear problems to a mechanic while in flight before crashing into woods, federal officials said Wednesday.
Additionally, the pilot was on his first flight aboard the type of plane that crashed after he had bought it, according to preliminary report on the crash released by the National Transportation Safety Board report on Wednesday.
Robert Prestininzi, 49, of Fort Mill, was the pilot and sole occupant of the plane that crashed around 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5, in woods near Heckle Boulevard in southern Rock Hill, officials said.
The crash was investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB.
The report issued Wednesday offers no reason or probable cause for the crash, said NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson. A final report usually takes a year or more, Knudson said.
“The preliminary report lays out the facts as we believe they are known now,” Knudson said. “There remains a lot of work to do.”
Details of the flight
The flight started at a small airport in Georgia near the Alabama state line.
The NTSB report said Prestininzi had recently bought the plane — a Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche small aircraft — and picked it up earlier that day from an airport in Tennessee.
He called the mechanic after picking it up, telling him that he made his first flight in a Twin Comanche-type plane, the report stated.
Prestininzi bought fuel and then departed LaGrange airport in Georgia before leaving for Rock Hill’s airport, which is along S.C 161 in northern Rock Hill, the report stated.
The NTSB report said Prestininzi called a mechanic while near the Rock Hill airport and reported the landing gear circuit breaker kept popping, according to the report.
“The pilot began to circle south of UZA ( Rock Hill airport federal designation) while the mechanic provided guidance on the manual gear extension process,” the report stated. “The calls repeatedly dropped; however, the final call began at 19:13 ( 7:13 p.m.) and dropped at 19:26 ( 7:26 p.m.) after the pilot stated, ‘I gotta add some power.’”
The plane then crashed nose-first into woods about 4 miles from the Rock Hill airport, the report stated.
Pilot was flight instructor, former deputy
Prestininzi had been a flight instructor at FlyCarolina Flight School since 2020, the company said on Facebook. The company is based in Charlotte and has schools at airports in Rock Hill, and Monroe and Concord in North Carolina, according to the company.
At the time of Prestininzi’s death, he worked with Guild Mortgage in Charlotte, the company said. He previously worked at LPL Financial in Fort Mill, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before his career in finance, Prestininizi worked as a deputy sheriff in Rutherford County, Tenn.
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