CHARLESTON, S.C. - The two men killed when their biplane crashed into Charleston Harbor were friends out for a sunset ride, a close friend of the dead pilot said Thursday.

"This was just a leisurely flight in the afternoon to watch the sun go down," said Chris Cochran, one of the operators of Air Tiger, a company that used the 65-year-old yellow biplane to give aerial tours of the area.

The victims were pilot Jacob Ralph Brown, 61, and passenger James Powers, 76, the Charleston County Coroner's Office said Thursday. Both were from James Island.

The two-seat plane crashed near Mount Pleasant shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday.

It hit a sandbar about two miles from the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, which has its own vintage planes on the flight deck and where a gala for recipients of the Medal of Honor was being held.

The plane crash was not related to the gala.

Crews were working to remove the wreckage from the sandbar Thursday. A Federal Aviation Administration representative was on the scene, and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, said Luke Schiada, a spokesman for the board.

Mr. Cochran said his company used the open cockpit Boeing Stearman to give aerial tours, most frequently during the summer tourist season.

The company Web site urges visitors to "pull on a helmet and goggles, feel the rushing breeze on your forehead, hear the rumble of the massive radial engine, the song of the wind through the flying wires."

A one-hour tour runs $300.

The plane crashed about 150 yards from shore on a clear, breezy evening. One witness said the plane seemed to flip over about 30 feet before hitting the sandbar.