Crash Claims Holtz Pilot, Friend

Lou Holtz was "still in a state of shock" Monday.

His good friend, pilot Dewey "Sonny" Foster, died Sunday night when his plane crashed in a misty rain four miles short of a runway near Beaufort, where Holtz was waiting for him.

Holtz had flown from Moncks Corner, between Charleston and Columbia, to the Beaufort area on the King Air turboprop earlier Sunday. It crashed after refueling in Hilton Head Island, going down in a wooded, isolated part of Oak Island not far from the Lady's Island airport.

Foster died in the fiery wreck. Co-pilot Joe Baier was taken to Beaufort Medical Center for shoulder surgery.

"It was a very close call. It could have happened while we were landing," Holtz said, speaking barely above a whisper.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigator was on the scene Monday.

According to athletic director Mike McGee, the 77-year-old Baier said he and Foster were going through the landing checklist when "it happened suddenly and he wasn't sure why."

It has been a difficult year for Holtz, personally and professionally, since he accepted South Carolina's football job.

His team finished 0-11, his worst record ever; his son and offensive coordinator, Skip, became severely ill with a virus doctors couldn't immediately diagnose; his wife, Beth, had surgery to remove glands thought to be cancerous; and his mother, Anne Marie, died in November, the day before South Carolina faced Florida.

"It has been a very long year," Holtz said. "The only thing you can do is go on."

Holtz said he flew with Foster about 30 times and they had grown close.

The 65-year-old retired brigadier general from the South Carolina Air National Guard flew part time for the university for several months and was added to the full-time staff Dec. 1, McGee said.

Foster spent five years flying NASCAR star Cale Yarborough, now a car owner, to racetracks across the country. But Yarborough said Foster didn't want the weekly grind.

"I never met a finer man. I never saw a better pilot," Yarborough said.

Holtz said he realized the plane's manifest listed him as a passenger, so he called his wife and McGee to let them know he was fine.

The university has had the 1977 King Air turboprop since 1982. McGee said it was the university president's plane for several years before it became the athletic department's.

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