SANTA ANA, Calif.—Five people on board a small airplane were killed when the twin-engine Cessna crashed in a Southern California parking lot on Aug. 5, authorities said.
The pilot of the Cessna 414 declared an emergency before crashing about a mile from John Wayne Airport, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokeswoman Arlene Salac said. The plane was heading to the airport southeast of Los Angeles when it came down and struck an unoccupied parked car in the lot of a Staples store and a CVS pharmacy, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi. There was no fire and nobody on the ground was hurt, he said. Photos from the scene showed the plane upright but on its belly.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash, Salac said. California is no stranger to planes crashing out of the blue. On March 31, two people died when they flew their home-built plane into a shed in Santa Paula,in southern California.
The resident’s father used to fly planes, she had a feeling that something was wrong. “I just knew— as low as it was and the way that it flipped—that’s not a trick.” said Darling-Daniel.
When the firefighters arrived, the two people in the plane were already dead.
