'The Bachelor' contestant killed in horrific plane crash

A contestant on the US series of The Bachelor has died in a horrific plane crash.

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Erin Storm, 41, was piloting the single engine plane which went down shortly after taking off at Hawthorne Airport in Los Angeles.

A construction crew witnessed the crash and managed to pull Storm from the wreckage.

"My partner just started yelling, 'There's a plane coming, a plane coming,'" witness Byron Mayes told KTLA. "It looked like the plane just veered up, lost control and hit a couple feet away from the truck, a couple feet away from us."

Three workers rushed to the wreckage, finding the pilot unconscious, with her legs burning.

The group then worked together to pull Storm out.

"Our first thought was getting her out, making sure she was OK," he said. Storm was transported to a nearby hospital but she died a short time later.

Aerial video showed the wreckage was significant and the plane was in pieces. TMZ reports Storm was the only person on board the plane at the time.

The man whose affections Storm was competing for in the series, 'Bachelor' Matt Grant, has told ET he is "massively shocked".

"Devastated for her family and friends. We were lucky to have Erin on season 12. She was genuine, self-assured, beautiful and hilarious.

"Somehow you knew from the first minute of being with her that Erin could pretty much go and do anything," Grant now recalls. "On my season her occupation was listed as Hot Dog Vendor...which surprised me a little bit. From talking to her, it soon became clear she was a smart, entrepreneurial cookie," he said.

It's unclear at this stage what caused the crash.

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