A daredevil pilot claimed to have lost control of his single-engine plane and wound up “dive bombing” over a beach in South Carolina — causing panicked sunbathers to run for cover.
William Roger Williamson III was taken into custody on May 26 for the solo flight he chartered in early April that nearly ended in disaster, according to the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office.
Williamson, 50, was piloting the aircraft over a beach on Pawleys Island when he apparently veered dangerously close to the shore — spooking beachgoers who feared he was crashing.
One witness told WMBF that she thought the plane was going to flatten a family lounging near the water.
“[The pilot] turned and he just sort of zeroed in on us like he was dive bombing, and just started straight for us, so close,” she said.
“We sort of dove out of our beach chairs, because we literally thought he was going to crash into the beach.”
Other horrified bystanders saw the plane “nearly clip” a row of beach houses, they told the outlet.
Pawleys Island Town Councilman Mark Hawn and Pawleys Island Police Chief Michael Fanning were both on the beach during his stunt. And one eagle-eyed beachgoer managed to capture the aircraft’s tail number, which linked back to Williamson.
When an investigator with the Federal Aviation Administration contacted the pilot, he claimed he got ice on one of the plane’s carburetors and was trying to deice it when a control knob popped off, according to an incident report.
He managed to patch the issue and explained that the plane briefly dipped before he regained control.
The investigator, though, didn’t buy his story. They told the sheriff’s office that all pilots are specifically instructed to continuously point toward the water or along the beach when bracing for a possible emergency landing, the outlet reported.
The FAA sent Williamson a letter with a 30-day deadline for his response. While the contents of the letter are unclear, Williamson never responded, and a judge approved a warrant for his arrest once the deadline expired.
Williamson was charged with breach of peace, aggravated in nature. He was released on a $5,000 bond shortly after turning himself in.
