Two killed as plane crashes into building near airport
A small plane crashed through the roof of a building near an airport in Southern California, killing two people and injuring a dozen others.
The plane went through a commercial building on the 2300 block of West Raymer Avenue in the city of Fullerton shortly after 2pm on Thursday, police said.
It was not immediately clear if the two people who died were aboard the plane or inside the building, said Fullerton police spokeswoman Kristy Wells.
Nine people were transported to local hospitals and six were treated at the scene and released. The victims’ conditions were not known.
CCTV footage from the wheel manufacturer Rucci Forge across the street showed black smoke rising from the top of a tall building and an aircraft on its side through the roof.
The plane, a homemade Van’s Aircraft RV-10, crashed close to Fullerton Municipal Airport, which is about 6 miles from Disneyland in Orange County.
‘People are just shaken over the situation,’ a witness, Mark Anderson, told NBCLA.
‘It was just a large boom, and then one of the people went out and said, “Oh my gosh, the building’s on fire.”‘
Firefighters battled the inferno at the Michael Nicholas Design Factory, a home goods store which appeared to house textiles and sewing machines. Cops evacuated nearby businesses.
The single-engine plane with four seats crashed about one minute after lifting off, according to FlightAware.
What caused the crash was not immediately known.
It happened just over a month after a small plane aircraft crashed into a tree at an intersection near the Fullerton airport and two people sustained minor injuries.
The latest incident comes as multiple plane crashes around the world have air travellers on edge.
On Sunday, a Boeing 737-800 flown by Jeju Air crash landed without its landing gear at Muan International Airport in South Korea, killing 179 people and sparing only two flight crew at the back of the plane.
And on December 25, an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash landed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. The aircraft is believed to have been damaged by Russian air defence systems as it attempted to touch down in Grozny.
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