NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina — A single-engine small plane carrying five people crashed Sunday near a golf course in the coastal resort community of North Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, killing at least one person, police said. and federal officials.
The Piper PA-32 went down northwest of the city’s Grand Stand Airport shortly after 11 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement confirming five people were on board.
North Myrtle Beach police spokesman Patrick Wilkinson initially said there was at least one death and one other person who was taken to a hospital, reported Myrtle Beach Sun News.
A North Myrtle Beach police dispatcher, contacted by The Associated Press, said he had no further information later Sunday and no spokesperson was immediately available to provide further updates on the dead or injured.
The newspaper reported that the plane crashed near a golf course in an area called Barefoot Landing, prompting police, firefighters and other emergency vehicles to rush to the scene.
The newspaper quoted a visitor to the area, Iris Gaines, as saying she saw the plane flying “kind of crazy” with one wing higher than the other just before the crash. “It was so close to this condo,” she told the newspaper.
Wilkinson said the plane was completely engulfed in flames when emergency crews arrived, and the newspaper reported that some trees appeared to be down along a road near the crash site.
The FAA said in a statement that the National Transportation Safety Board will lead an investigation into the accident. The FAA had no other information about where the plane departed from or where it was headed.
The American Eagle airline plane, a regional brand of American Airlines, had landed in Little Rock, Arkansas. To see more from Telemundo, visit
