Investigator: Plane Bounced off North Carolina Runway 3 Times

A federal investigator says the plane that crashed at a North Carolina airport bounced on the runway three times before it veered into a tree.

WNCN-TV in Raleigh reported that National Transportation Safety Board investigator Corky Smith said one of the plane’s passengers said the aircraft touched down and went airborne three times at Horace Williams Airport in Chapel Hill. Pilot Thomas Pitts then increased to full power and the plane veered left.

Pitts was killed. Two people were injured, including Kyle Henn, who was flying from Delaware to North Carolina to join his family after his brother, Nate Henn, was killed in terrorist bombings in Uganda last Sunday.

A spokesman at UNC Hospitals said Kyle Henn was released on Wednesday, while co-pilot James Donahue remained hospitalized in critical condition