Small airplane lands at Myrtle Beach airport after door falls off, lands in Market Common yard, FAA says

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — The door of a small airplane fell into a yard in The Market Common on Tuesday, causing the plane to make an emergency landing at Myrtle Beach International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The door fell into a yard in The Market Common, according to Wendy Hodges, who captured photos of it.

“It was all intact and it was lying nicely between the two homes,” Hodges said. “When I saw it lying there, I was just pretty amazed, and I wondered what had happened to the pilot or whoever was in the plane.”

The Diamond DA40 aircraft took off at 2:53 p.m. on Tuesday before turning around and landing at 3:01 p.m., according to data from FlightAware. Data shows the plane was initially headed to Florence Regional Airport and flew as high as 1,500 feet.

The single-engine plane owned by Lift Aircraft LLC, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, sustained minor damage, the FAA said. Two people were on board the instructional flight, but neither was injured.

A similar plane that made an emergency landing in May on Highway 501 in Horry County was also registered to Lift Training Academy.

“Shortly after takeoff, one of our aircraft experienced the loss of a cabin door. The crew aboard executed their standard response procedure to return to the field and landed without incident,” Lift spokesperson Jon Austin told News13. “The cabin door was subsequently recovered and will be examined as part of our investigation into this event.”

News13 reached out to an MYR spokesperson for more information. As of about 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, we have not heard back.

Count on News13 for updates.

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Caleb is a digital producer at News13. Caleb joined the team in January 2023 after graduating from Liberty University. He is from Northern Virginia. Follow Caleb on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here .

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Adrianna Lawrence is a multimedia journalist at News13. Adrianna is originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and joined the News13 team in June 2023 after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2023. Keep up with Adrianna on Instagram, Facebook , and X, formerly Twitter . You can also read more of her work, here .

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