Several dead as plane crashes on California neighbourhood

SAN DIEGO: Several people are feared dead after a small plane crashed onto a California neighbourhood before dawn Thursday, destroying homes and setting cars on fire.

At least 10 houses were burned or hit by debris that spread over a wide area, and cars on both sides of a street went up in flames when the Cessna 550 slammed into the ground in San Diego.

“There are more than one fatality that we found so far, but we’re waiting to get the registered numbers that were on the plane itself,” said San Diego’s Assistant Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy.

“When it hit the street, as the jet fuel went down, it took out every single car that was on both sides of the street,” he said, adding: “We have jet fuel all over the place.”

One resident told the local Fox affiliate he had fled his home in a hurry.

“I looked out the window and there was just flames everywhere,” said the man, who did not give his name.

“Then we heard the chain reaction of boom, boom, boom. And I’m like: ‘Whoa’.”

Footage of the immediate aftermath of the crash showed a line of burning fuel linking the flaming cars.