Emergency personnel respond to a single-engine plane crash in the area of Barefoot Landing, in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., Sunday, July 2, 2023. (Terri Richardson/The Sun News via AP)
Republished July 05, 2023 - 5:45 PM
Original Publication Date July 05, 2023 - 10:31 AM
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — Five people are dead after a single-engine plane crashed over the weekend in a South Carolina coastal resort town.
Officials said Sunday's fiery wreck near a golf course in North Myrtle Beach killed all four passengers and the pilot, The Myrtle Beach Sun News reported. The Monday update raised the death toll from initial reports that one person had passed.
Tamara Willard, the chief deputy coroner for Horry County, told the newspaper that one person died shortly after being taken to a regional hospital while the others died at the crash.
The identities of the victims were shared Wednesday evening after officials first informed their families. The four passengers — Tanique Cheu, 32, and her son, Sean Gardner, 7, as well as Suzette Coleman-Edwards, 42, and her daughter, Odaycia Edwards, 17 — all hailed from East Orange, New Jersey, and had legal relatives living in Jamaica. The pilot was Dr. Joseph Farnese, 66, of Caldwell, New Jersey.
The cause of the plane's downfall remains unclear.
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This story has been updated to correctly spell Horry County Chief Deputy Coroner Tamara Willard's last name upon first reference.
News from © The Associated Press, 2023