Instructor charged with manslaughter in Pennsylvania plane crash that killed student pilot

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A flight instructor involved in a crash that killed a student pilot in eastern Pennsylvania has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Federal prosecutors say Philip Everton McPherson II had two prior plane crashes with students aboard and had surrendered his pilot’s certificate a year earlier. The indictment unsealed Monday says the 36-year-old McPherson, of Haddon Township, New Jersey, was in command of the single-engine plane when it left an Allentown airport in September 2022.  A National Transportation Safety Board report quotes him as saying he took control of the plane just after takeoff amid engine problems. The plane soon crashed and caught fire.