Report Suggests Pilot Error in South Dakota Crash

A preliminary report suggests a student pilot who died in a crash at the Sturgis airport in western South Dakota apparently lost control of the Cessna single-engine plane.

Fifty-seven-year-old Charlie Palmer of Dyersberg, Tenn., was practicing touch-and-go landings on Nov. 11. The Rapid City Journal says the National Transportation Safety Board report indicates Palmer was taking off after his second landing when the flight instructor saw the plane spin and hit the ground.

Investigators didn’t find anything mechanically wrong with the plane, and weather conditions on the clear day with light wind do not appear to have contributed to the crash.

The report also says the plane was involved in a takeoff accident in 2000, but no one was hurt.

Palmer worked for a business in Sturgis.