3 die in plane crash; Skydiving kills 1

One person has been killed and another injured in a skydiving accident in southern Mississippi.

Lamar County Emergency Management Director James Smith confirmed the fatality to the Hattiesburg American.

He said the surviving skydiver has been transported to a hospital with fractures to his extremities and possible head injuries.

Smith said the two jumped in tandem during a Saturday flight conducted by Lumberton-based Gold Coast Skydivers, but that there was an equipment malfunction.

After the two didn't show up at a nearby airport, Smith said Gold Coast Skydivers looked for them for a few hours and then notified authorities. The two were found in a swampy area more than a mile from the airport. No one answered a phone number for Gold Coast Skydivers Saturday night.  

3 die in plane crash

A private twin-engine aircraft has crashed near a subdivision in coastal South Carolina, killing all three people onboard.
Horry (OHR'-ee) County Coroner Robert Edge identified the victims Saturday night as 39-year-old James Major of Conway, 42-year-old Kenneth Piuma of Myrtle Beach and 16-year-old Donald Dale Becker of Conway.

Edge said Major was piloting the plane when it apparently struck a power line while attempting to return to Conway-Horry County Airport Saturday afternoon.
Edge said, "When they hit the power line, it set them nose down first."

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says the Beechcraft BE55 Baron was destroyed.

Kirk Lovell with the Horry County Department of Airports says the aircraft clipped some electrical wires when it went down, cutting power to the area.

The crash in Conway happened just 15 miles northwest of Myrtle Beach.
 

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