Plane crash in California leaves at least two dead, 19 injured

At least two people were killed and 19 others were injured in a fiery explosion Thursday after a small plane crashed into a furniture manufacturing facility in Southern California, shortly after taking off from a nearby airport.

The four-seat aircraft struck the sprawling building on Raymer Avenue near the Fullerton Municipal Airport in Orange County just after 2 pm, roughly 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, authorities said.

Benjamin Torrez, who helps load furniture onto trucks, was nearing the end of his shift when he and his co-workers heard a loud collision followed by screams. Torrez, 57, ran outside to see a horrific scene: a downed plane engulfed in flames as some of his colleagues frantically used extinguishers on three or four workers who had caught fire.

“We know most everybody but don’t know them well,” Torrez said of the workers, who he said worked in other parts of the warehouse.

“Many got burned,” he added. “I was scared.”

Officials estimated that as many as 300 people were evacuated from the building, which sustained major damage from the crash and fire. Nineteen people were treated for injuries, including some who were taken to the hospital, said Mike Meacham, a deputy chief with the Fullerton Fire Department.

The two people who were killed have not yet been identified, and it was not clear if they had been aboard the plane, officials said.

According to Eliott Simpson, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, the plane had climbed to 900 feet before the pilot called for an immediate return to the airport.

The pilot then made a 180 degree left turn in an effort to return but crashed into the building about 1,000 feet short of the runway. He did not signal what might have been wrong with the plane before it crashed, Simpson said at a news conference Thursday night.

Surveillance footage obtained by a local TV station from a nearby building showed the moment of impact, with the plane exploding in an enormous fireball as it struck the roof of the facility. Smoke could be seen billowing from a large hole in the roof in separate aerial footage from local TV.

The aircraft was a Van’s RV-10, a popular kit plane that owners can build and maintain themselves, Simpson said. The plane in Thursday’s crash was built in 2011, and the owner was listed as a resident of Huntington Beach, California. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

Officials said it was unclear where the plane might have been going and added that weather very likely did not play a part in the crash. Simpson said the NTSB would continue its investigation Friday and recover the aircraft by Friday evening.

There have been several crashes involving small planes flying in and out of the Fullerton Municipal Airport over the years.

In November, two people were injured when a plane taking off from the airport made an emergency landing and crashed into a tree just one street away from site of Thursday’s collision. In 1995, the airport faced intense scrutiny after a plane trying to land there crashed into a town-house complex, killing two people onboard and a third person inside the home.