Nevada plane crash kills one, injures three

AP

DOWNED: Wreckage of a single-engine Piper Cherokee on a residential street in Henderson, Nevada.

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A small plane crashed and burst into flames on a street in a southern Nevada residential neighbourhood Monday, killing one person and badly injuring three others, authorities said.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sergeant John Sheahan said two males and two females were aboard the single-engine Piper Cherokee when it crashed in Henderson, just south of Las Vegas. He said it was a miracle no one on the ground was injured.

"I think we can attribute that to the pilot trying to put it down in a safe place," he said. "You're talking the plane crashed maybe 20 or 30 feet (6.1 to 9.1 metres) (from the nearest home)."

The debris field is a block long, and one of the wings ended up in the backyard of a home, the sergeant said. The main body of the fuselage came to rest on Morning Mauve Avenue.

Police Lt. Joe Ojeda told the Las Vegas Sun that the plane struck two block walls, a streetlight pole and a tree before landing in the street, and that residents pulled two occupants from the burning wreckage before firefighters arrived. The two were conscious at the time, he said.

"It appeared the way the aircraft was lined up that he did try to land on the road itself," Ojeda told the Sun. "On first blush it looks like he did try to do some kind of manoeuvre to get down as safely as he could."

The injured, whose identities were not released, were taken to University Medical Center with life-threatening burns and trauma. Hospital spokeswoman Danita Cohen said two were listed in serious condition and one in critical condition.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the plane took off from Henderson Executive Airport shortly after 8am and was unable to gain altitude. The pilot tried to return to Henderson but crashed about 3km northwest of the airport.

No flight plan was filed, authorities said, and the destination of the plane was not immediately known. The aircraft was registered to a Louisiana resident.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Joshua Cawthra told reporters at the scene late Monday afternoon that a preliminary report on the crash will be available later this week, he said, and the full investigation will take six months to a year to complete.

The plane had arrived at the Henderson airport Thursday, he added.

Robert Sutton told KLAS-TV in Las Vegas that he heard the sputtering plane pass over his house at low altitude before there was a loud boom a few seconds later.

He and other residents doused the flames with hoses, then flipped the upside-down plane over and tried to help two victims trapped inside. Two other people in the plane were sitting in someone's yard, he said.

Sutton said he saw a woman in the plane who was coherent.

"She was really badly burned. Her face was so badly burned, and she could barely open her eyes, and her hair was all burned," Sutton told KLAS.

- AP