LINCOLNTON, N.C.—A small plane crashed shortly after takeoff from a western North Carolina airport, killing the two people aboard.
Highway Patrol Master Trooper Jeffrey Swagger said the plane went down around 5:40 a.m. in a field near the Lincoln County Regional airport, northwest of Charlotte.
The pilot of the single-engine Piper PA-32 was identified as 63-year-old Teddy Wayne Heavner. The passenger was 54-year-old Basil “Todd” Sain. The Highway Patrol says both men, who were from Lincolnton, were killed.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. Swagger says the plane appears to have been a 1977 model registered to a company owned by Heavner.
