Multiple killed in plane crash near memorial to Wright brothers

US

Multiple people have died after a single-engine plane crashed near a monument in honour of the pioneering US flyers, the Wright brothers.

The aircraft went down at around 5pm on Saturday, local time, at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Outer Banks, North Carolina.

The US National Park Service, quoting eyewitnesses, said the plane was trying to land at the First Flight Airport but crashed.

The plane caught fire after the crash, the service said, before being extinguished by the Kill Devil Hills Fire Department and other local fire departments.

The airport is closed until further notice, with the memorial closed on Sunday.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident and the Federal Aviation Administration has also been informed.

Outer Banks is a string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia on the east coast of the US.

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Orville and Wilbur Wright are credited with inventing, building, and flying the world’s first successful plane.

They made the first controlled, sustained flight of an engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer in December 1903, landing near the memorial in Kill Devil Hills.

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