A small plane crashed and burst into flames in a residential area of Riverside on Sunday, killing the pilot, a fire official said.
The air traffic control tower at Riverside Municipal Airport about 5 p.m. received a distress call from a single-engine B35 Cessna, according to Capt. Tim Odebralski of the Riverside Fire Department.
The pilot reported having engine trouble and requested an emergency landing at the airport. Shortly afterward, “the pilot stated that he didn’t think he was going to make it and that’s the last transmission,” Odebralski told KTLA.
The plane then crashed in the 4500 block of Adams Street, coming to a stop on a sidewalk and through a fence in the backyard of a single-story home, the Fire Department said. The location is across from the campus of Adams Elementary School and less than half a mile from the nearest runway at the airport.
“We were coming down the street and I heard my daughter yell at my husband and there was literally a fireball,” said witness Shanene Romero, who was in a vehicle with her family. Her husband then swerved to avoid falling debris, she said.
“It was intense heat and then we heard a terrific crash,” she added.
In an interview, Catherine Burke said her aging parents were inside their home when the plane slammed through the rear fence.
“While they were eating, they looked up and saw a lot of smoke and dirt in the air,” she said, “and then flames.”
The couple called 911, initially unaware of what exactly had happened. Meanwhile, according to Romero, neighbors used a garden hose and fire extinguisher in an attempt to knock down the blaze and help the pilot.
“Another gentleman,” she said, “was yelling in the plane and saying, ‘Are you OK? Are you OK?”
Firefighters from the department’s airport station arrived at the scene and quickly extinguished the flames, Odebralski said.
The unidentified pilot, the plane’s only occupant, was pronounced dead at the scene, he said, adding that no one on the ground was injured.
The aircraft’s tail number was indecipherable in the wreckage. It was unclear where the plane had taken off from, but a Fire Department official said the flight had not originated from Riverside Municipal Airport.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators were en route to the crash site.
“I’m sure with everyone else, I feel for the pilot and his family and what they’re having to go through,” Burke said.
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