One person killed, another injured after plane crashes near Myrtle Beach golf resort

One person has been killed and another injured after a small plane crashed and burst into flames near North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The crash occurred around 11.30am near the Barefoot Resort and Golf facility on Sunday morning.

North Myrtle Beach police spokesman Patrick Wilkinson said that one person was killed at the scene and another was taken to hospital. The condition of the other occupants of the plane are unknown, according to local news site,The Sun News.

Police believe there were four people onboard the aircraft when it crashed, according to WMBF.

The plane, a single-engine Piper PA-32, crashed shortly after taking off at 11.20am. Mr Wilkinson said the plane was “engulfed in flames” when first responders arrived to the scene.

Videos and photos shared on social media showed a plume of black smoke rising high above the crash site and the surrounding buildings shortly after the plane went down.

Both the Federal Aviation Authority and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

Iris Gaines, who was in town visiting family, told the Sun News that she saw the plane flying erratically just before it crashed.

She said that one of the plane’s wings was up and that it was flying “sort of crazy like,” noting that it was “so close over this condo.”

Another man was at a traffic stop near the golf resort when he and his wife saw the plane spiraling toward the ground.

“I was sitting at a stoplight leaving Barefoot Landing and saw the plane circling and seemed to turn downward. I pointed it out to my wife and in seconds, the smoke was billowing,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Emergency vehicles sped by. This was all while we sat waiting for the light to change.”

The cause of the plane crash is currently under investigation, according to police.

This is the second fatal small-airplane crash in the region in seven days. On 25 June, a small aircraft piloted by John Leo Lucarelli of South Carolina crashed near Southport, 65 miles north-east of Myrtle Beach.

Mr Lucarelli radioed shortly after takeoff that he was experiencing engine trouble and told an airport on Oak Island that he was turning back to land, according to Star News Online.

The plane descended too fast, striking a tree and then grazing a house before it came to a stop near the runway at the Cape Fear Regional Jetport on Oak Island. Mr Lucarelli was pronounced dead at the scene.