A small plane crashed through the roof of a large furniture manufacturing building in Fullerton on Thursday, shortly after the pilot radioed a request for an emergency landing at the nearby airport. Two people aboard the plane died and 19 people working inside the building were injured, officials said.
Eleven of those injured were hospitalized; eight were treated at the scene, officials said
The identities of the people who died was not yet known, said Kristy Wells, a Fullerton police spokesperson.
Shortly after 2 p.m., the Fullerton Fire Department got a call about the crash on Raymer Avenue, Lt. Tim Kandler said. The building of Michael Nicholas Designs, a furniture factory, was engulfed in flames with people inside. A Vans RV-10 experimental aircraft was found inside the building.
Security footage posted online shows a huge fireball and plume of black smoke arising from the structure shortly after the crash.
Juanita Ramirez, a 58-year-old employee, was among those at the site. She heard a loud crash and saw a large ball of fire flying toward her.
“It felt like a dream,” Ramirez said.
She started running away with her coworkers and felt her head pounding from the fear.
Jesús Díaz, 43, was nearby working on the factory line when he heard the loud sound and saw heavy black smoke coming from the roof.
“I thought it was a speaker burning, or an electrical fire,” Diaz said.
The explosion from the plane left some workers burned, at least one severely, Diaz said.
More than 100 people were evacuated from the building. Officials also evacuated surrounding businesses.
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About 90 seconds after the pilot had taken off from the Fullerton Airport, he radioed in to the Federal Aviation Administration tower at the airfield that an emergency landing was required.
The plane was given clearance to use either side of the runway, according to the tower transmission.
From that transmission, it seems that there was at least one passenger in addition to the pilot.
Chris Villalobos, an airport operations worker, came to the warehouse to see what had happened after receiving a phone call about a plane going down nearby.
He told The Associated Press that the owner of the aircraft was a regular at the airport and has frequently taken off from there.
“He has a hangar here and everything,” Villalobos said.
Villalobos said that after taking off, the pilot told air traffic control he was going to turn around to make an emergency landing, but it was unclear what the issue with the plane was.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a single-engine Van’s RV-10, a four-seat aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board said in a social media post that it is investigating the crash.
The Fullerton City Council posted a statement on social media calling the crash a “solemn tragedy.”
“The City of Fullerton is committed to providing support for all those affected and working with the agencies involved to uncover the details of this incident,” Mayor Fred Jung said in the statement. “We are grateful for the strength of our community and the compassion we show one another in times of crisis.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report..
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