Two people died after a small plane crashed into a commercial building in California on Thursday, said the police. Around 18 people were injured in the crash.
The plane crashed early in the afternoon near Fullerton Municipal Airport, 40 kilometres southeast of Los Angeles. The cause of the crash remains unknown, reported AFP.
“There are two confirmed fatalities,” Fullerton police said in a post on X.
Additionally, 10 people were admitted to the hospital and eight others were treated on the spot.
However, it was not yet known whether the victims were plane passengers or workers at the building where it crashed, a police officer said. It was also not immediately known as to how many people were on the plane, or if the two dead were onboard. According to officials, around 300 people were evacuated from the building.
🚨#BREAKING: Evacuations are underway with a massive response after a plane crashed into an office building or warehouse with reports of casualties
⁰📌#Fullerton l #CaliforniaA massive response is currently underway in Fullerton, California, where evacuations are in progress… pic.twitter.com/9j6N7W4mkh
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) January 2, 2025
Television footage showed smoke pouring out from a gaping hole in the roof of the building where it crashed. “All we hear is like a loud noise, boom, and that’s it. Then we started running out” of the building, Jerome Cruz, one of the workers who witnessed the scene, told CBS News.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, which has begun an investigation into the accident, the plane was a single-engine Van RV-10, a small model with four seats.
The incident comes just two months after a plane taking off from the airport made an emergency landing and crashed into a tree just one street from the site of the collision on Thursday.
The airport had come under intense scrutiny after a plane trying to land at the airport crashed into a townhouse complex in 1995, killing two people onboard and a third person inside the home.
