MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — A 1940s-era banner plane that crashed into the ocean surf late Monday morning near 40th Avenue N. in Myrtle Beach was involved in another incident at the Georgetown County Airport in April 2009, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The crash Monday morning happened at about 11:35 a.m. and resulted in the pilot of the Piper PA-12 being taken to a local hospital, according to Myrtle Beach police and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Beachgoers went into the water after the crash in an effort to help the pilot out of the plane. No information about the pilot’s injuries was immediately available.

The FAA initially identified the plane as a Piper PA-18 but later confirmed to News13 that it was a PA-12 model aircraft owned by Barnstormers Aerial Advertising LLC based in North Myrtle Beach. The two-seat plane was built in 1947.

Barnstormers Aerial Advertising also owned a Piper PA-12 that crashed in May 2022 in North Myrtle Beach, killing the pilot, 56-year-old David Flading. The company’s president said Flading was a longtime employee with more than 15,000 hours flying the type of plane that crashed, an NTSB preliminary report said.

Witnesses told the NTSB that the Piper PA-12 was picking up a banner when it stalled while pitching up. It crashed about 300 feet away from the banner pick-up zone, according to the report. 

The 2009 incident happened while a recently hired pilot was practicing tough-and-go landings at the Georgetown County Airport, according to a final NTSB report on the incident. A chief pilot was onboard at the time.

During the second landing attempt, the NTSB report said the aircraft turned to the right soon after the tailwheel made contact with the runway and the pilot was not able to maintain control.

“The airplane ground looped, the left main landing gear collapsed, and the left wing was bent upward,” the report said. The NTSB report classified the damage to the aircraft as “substantial.”

The pilot had reported 319 hours of total flight experience, with only three hours in the tailwheel-type airplane, the NTSB said, adding that the “pilot’s lack of experience in the make and model airplane” was a contributing factor to the accident. No one was hurt in the incident.

The NTSB is handling the investigation into Monday’s crash. A preliminary report is typically issued soon after the crash, but a final report can take a year or more to complete.