Yorba Linda - A small plane slammed into a
two-story house in the Californian city of Yorba Linda on Sunday,
killing five people including the pilot, and creating a chaotic scene
as neighbors ran out to discover the home on fire and pieces of the
aircraft strewn across their yards.
Two men and two women were killed inside the burning home, the Orange
County Sheriff's Department confirmed. The pilot was the plane's sole
occupant.
Two other people were taken to a hospital with mild to moderate
burns, said fire Capt. Cameron Rossman, a spokesman for the Orange
County Fire Authority. A firefighter suffered a minor ankle injury,
he said.
Radar shows that the plane took a left turn after takeoff and began
its rapid descent 10 miles into the trip, National Transportation
Safety Board investigator Eliott Simpson said at an evening news
conference. The wreckage spanned four blocks.
A call about the crash in the 19000 block of Crestknoll Drive came in
at 1:45 p.m., said Carrie Braun, a spokeswoman for the Orange County
Sheriff's Department. She did not have information about what may
have led to the crash.
The Cessna 414 had just taken off from the Fullerton Municipal
Airport at 1:35 p.m., NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said. He said his
agency is investigating the crash along with the Federal Aviation
Administration.
A person who answered the phone at Fullerton Airport Operations, but
declined to give his name, said the pilot frequently flew out of the
airport.
Joshua Nelson, 28, said he was about to take a nap when he heard a
shrill whistling sound and a loud bang outside his home on Crestknoll
Drive. He hopped out of bed, ran out the front door and saw a plume
of black smoke.
Nelson began recording a video on his phone before he had any clue
what was going on. He soon learned that a propeller had landed in the
front yard of a house three doors down, smashing windows but not
harming anyone inside. Seven doors down, a house was on fire.
Nelson said he's not used to seeing many of his neighbors in his
quiet community. But when the plane crashed, residents seemed to
spill out of their homes in unison.
Around 4 p.m., Nelson's street was sectioned off with caution tape
and choked with news and fire trucks. His family canceled their Super
Bowl party.
"I would never expect anything like this to happen here," he said.
Neighbor Nancy Mehl, 65, was in her kitchen when she heard what
sounded like the high-pitched whine of a plane preparing for takeoff.
She said she could sense that something bad was about to happen, so
she grabbed her two Labradors and sprinted to the far back corner of
her house on Crestknoll Drive. Her husband, Jim, had also taken cover
elsewhere in their home of 12 years.
"And then it felt like a bomb went off through the front of the
house," Mehl said.
A piece of the plane's engine had knocked down a pillar on the front
porch, ricocheted and torpedoed through a first-floor window with
such momentum that it flew through two rooms before landing in a
bathroom. Fragments of exhaust pipe crashed through a second-floor
window and melted into the carpet. A propeller thumped onto the
driveway.
"One of the first things I did when I saw the damage was get on my
knees and thank God," Mehl said. "Talk about being spared."
Down the street, Sarah Ahern was blow drying her 7-year-old
daughter's hair for a Super Bowl party when she felt the ground shake
beneath her feet.
The mother scooped up her daughter and 9-year-old son and took cover
in the hallway of their home. The house shook.
"It's an earthquake," Ahern yelled out to her husband.
Then came at least two explosions.
"No, a plane crashed into our neighbor's house," her husband said. "A
plane is on fire. Call 911!"
"Are they OK? Can you get people out of the house?" their daughter
asked.
There was nothing she and her husband could do.
"The whole house, I mean within a matter of seconds, was burning,"
Ahern said.
They didn't know whether anyone was in the house. Her husband ran
outside and grabbed a hose to try to put out the fire.
A flaming plane wing landed in Ahern's front yard and continued to
burn, but the rain helped put it out.
After law enforcement showed up, officers asked people to leave,
Ahern said. She gathered her children and hurried down the street a
few homes to where her parents live.
Her husband stayed behind to help.