Plane makes safe emergency landing on SC beach

SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — Authorities say a replica World War II-era plane has made a safe emergency landing on an Horry County beach after its engine failed shortly after takeoff from the Myrtle Beach airport.

Officials said the pilot tried to make it back to the airport Thursday afternoon, but couldn’t make it and decided to land in the sand on Surfside Beach. Neither the pilot nor a passenger was injured and no one was hurt on the ground.

The plane was a single engine aircraft made in China in 1987.

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration are heading to Horry County to investigate the incident.