A plane carrying five people plunged into two homes on Monday in Riverside, California, killing at least three of the passengers and injuring two others, authorities said.
The passengers were returning to San Jose, California after a weekend cheerleading competition at Disneyland when the plane crashed shortly before 4:45pm, setting two homes ablaze, Riverside Fire Chief Michael Moore said in a news conference. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
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Plane crashes into California homes
Three people were killed and two critically injured when their light aircraft crashed into a house, causing several fires in a residential neighborhood in southern California.
Two adult women in their late 30s were transported from the site of the crash to area hospitals for medical treatment. Authorities believe that none of the residents of the damaged homes were injured in the crash, Moore said.
One woman, who was ejected from the plane, survived with minor injuries. An additional victim, pulled from the rubble, was transported to a hospital in "very critical condition" and unconscious, Moore said. She was undergoing surgery on Monday night.
Moore initially said the plane had been carrying three teenagers, but later said he was not sure of the ages of those on board. Authorities also had said four people had died, but later corrected the number to three.
Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim hosted the United Spirit Association Jr. Nationals cheerleading competition on Saturday and Sunday.
"This is supposedly a happy time and then just to have a tragic incident like this . . .," Moore said, "It's really just a sad case for us."
The plane, a Cessna 310, crashed about a kilometre northeast of the Riverside Municipal Airport and had just taken off, airport manager Kim Ellis told the Orange County Register. A witness saw the plane make a turn, then nosedive, the Orange County Register reported. Neighbours told the newspaper the crash felt like an earthquake that was followed by a "big orange ball of fire."
![A small plane collided with two homes shortly after taking off from a nearby airport.](/web/20170404043304im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/n/m/b/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gunmbn.png/1488330243839.jpg)
The plane split as it rammed into the residential neighbourhood. The crash completely destroyed two homes, scorched a car and scattered debris at least a half mile away. The entire block - an estimated 20 houses on each side of the street - were evacuated so that the National Transportation Safety Board could investigate.
Sixty firefighters responded to the scene, and a shelter was set up at a nearby community centre.
![Firefighters put out flames after a plane crashed in Riverside, California.](/web/20170404043304im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/n/m/b/m/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gunmbn.png/1488330243839.jpg)
"They will be pretty devastated to see that their house is pretty much a total loss," Moore said. The residents of the other torched house had not yet returned by Monday night, he added.
One witness, Brian Marsh, told the Orange County Register that he saw the plane dive as he was driving west.
"It made a turn and the wings were almost perpendicular to the ground. It looked like a stunt plane," he said. "All of a sudden it turned into a free fall."
"Flames were everywhere," he added. "Smoke was billowing out."
Marvinus Johnson, 31, and Breonna Johnson, 27, who live two houses to the right of where the plane crashed, told the Orange County Register a wing of the plane crashed into their house, and the impact blew out their front two windows.
When Marvinus Johnson ran outside to help, he joined another man in helping pull the pilot, a woman, out of the wreckage. They laid her across the street, and she said her daughter and four other people were inside the plane.
"We were holding her and all she kept saying was, 'My daughter, my daughter,'" Marvinus Johnson said.
Washington Post