Authorities in Hancock County say the pilot of a plane that crashed south of Forest City has died.

The crash occurred Friday afternoon.

Heather Jordon, a communications director at Waldorf College, says the plane was leased to Waldorf and Alabama-based Columbia Southern University, and was coming into Forest City to pick up three employees and ferry them to Alabama.

Jordon says no one but the pilot was known to be on the plane at the time of the crash.

Hancock County Sheriff’s Deputy Ray Penning has confirmed the crash, but says it was not immediately known who was on the plane or its size.