A plane forced to make an emergency landing as the engine shut down and the propeller came off has killed a man exercising on the beach where it touched down.

The doomed flyer reported engine trouble at 13,000ft above South Carolina.

It was trying to reach a nearby airport when the propeller flew off.

The pilot aborted the plan and was hunting for somewhere safe to land when he spotted the long stretch of sand along Palmetto Dunes.

But oil began pouring out of the plane, splattering the windshield and blocking the pilot's vision.

As the plane came in to land on the coastline, it struck and killed the beachgoer, according to fire and rescue spokeswoman Joheida Fister.

The names of the man killed, the pilot and his male passenger have not been released following the incident, which took place late on Monday.

Both survivors were taken to the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office ahead of the investigation into the crash.

The landing occurred just three miles from Hilton Head island's airport.

The plane - an Experimental Lancair IV-P - had been travelling from Orlando Executive airport in Florida, bound for Norfolk, Virginia.

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A very good reason for not listening to iPods while out in the open air. Not that the poor chap would have heard anything with the prop missing & (presumably) the engine shut down.