Family of NASA Engineer Dies in South Carolina Plane Crash

A decorated Army veteran and NASA-affiliated aerospace engineer died along with his wife and two sons in a small plane crash in South Carolina on April 17, 2026, prompting renewed scrutiny of a series of deaths and disappearances among U.S. scientists in sensitive research fields.

James Tony Moffatt, 60, piloted the Mooney M20 single-engine aircraft carrying his wife, Leasa, 61, and sons Andrew, 30, and William, 28, when it went down in a wooded area near Union County Airport around 6:30 p.m. The family, residents of Huntsville, Alabama, had departed from the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina and stopped at the airport for refueling before continuing home. All four aboard perished, according to the Union County Coroner's Office. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the cause, with preliminary wreckage analysis underway but no determination released as of April 23.

Moffatt had a distinguished career spanning military service and space exploration. A lieutenant colonel who retired from the Army in 2008 after 21 years, he held a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech and trained as an experimental...