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By Evan Simko-Bednarski (NY Post)
February 14, 2022
Eight people — including four teens — were feared dead Monday after the small plane they were in crashed into the ocean off North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
The group of duck hunters reportedly included a woman who posted eerie photos on Facebook around 11 a.m. Sunday — before the plane disappeared — including shots from inside an aircraft featuring boys in camouflage and other snaps of the same kids posing in front of dead fowl.
One body had been recovered from a debris field, and “We have no indication that anyone survived the crash,” said Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck at a press conference Monday, according to a local NBC affiliate.
The seven passengers and pilot were returning from the hunting trip when their single-engine Pilatus PC-12 began acting erratically before disappearing from radar about 4 miles from Drum Inlet, said the Coast Guard and friends.
“He was one of the most generous people I know, and he had a duck hunting property and he had invited a large number of youth and veterans,” Harrison said of Parks.
“There’s a special duck season, a one-day duck season for youth and veterans, and he had invited them all to his property to duck hunt. And they had hunted there Saturday and were still in Hyde County at lunchtime yesterday and flew home yesterday when the accident happened.”
Stephanie Fulcher’s most recent Facebook post showed a number of men and boys in camo and hunting gear.
“Blessed to have a successful Youth/Veteran duck hunt again this year!” she wrote.
Harrison added in a Facebook post of Fulcher’s beau, a partner in his farm management company, “Hunter was kind, generous, a good businessman, partner and friend.
“He will be deeply missed. Please pray for his Mom, Janet, his brother Toliver and all the the families effected by this horrible tragedy.”
Four of the eight people on board are believed to be teenagers, the affiliate said.
“We are incredibly saddened as we join with the Down East and Eastern North Carolina community as we await official word on the airplane crash off the coast of Drum Inlet, North Carolina,” Carteret County Public Schools said in a statement to the outlet. “Crisis teams are on school campuses to support students, staff and families.”
The Coast Guard has not yet released the identities of the missing.
Air traffic controllers at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point reported an issue with the flight to the Coast Guard after it disappeared from radar.
The Coast Guard mobilized a C-130 plane for search operations Monday, a spokesman told The Post. It was joining an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and the Coast Guard cutter Rollin Fritch in the operation along with additional small search vessels.
