Two Dead in Indiana Plane Crash
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Joseph Devenney/Getty Images(SOUTH BEND, Ind.) — Two people have died and at least three others were injured on Sunday when a small plane crashed into a neighborhood near an airport in South Bend, Ind., according to a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.
The pilot of the Hawker Beachcraft Premier 1 twin-jet plane, which had taken off from Tulsa, Okla., radioed the tower to report electrical problems while on approach to South Bend Regional Airport.
The plane crashed into the neighborhood, hitting three houses before finally coming to a stop, lodged in a house.
FAA spokesman Roland Herwig in Oklahoma City said there were four people on the plane, and two of them have died.
The crash shattered the calm of a Sunday afternoon in the quiet residential neighborhood.
“We thought a house was on fire on the next street, cause it was just blowing and it was like ash that was going through the air, little pieces,” said Florence Retek, who lives nearby. “It was a loud noise and it sounded like a truck had crashed and then we looked out the front window, door and there was smoke.”
The neighborhood was evacuated because of concerns about gas leaking from the plane’s fuel tank.
South Bend Assistant Fire Chief John Corthier said the jet fuel leak made the situation “very dangerous.”
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