A single-engine aircraft with five people on board crashed and caught fire on Sunday in the parking lot of a retirement community near a small airport in Pennsylvania. The five occupants survived, officials and witnesses reported.
The incident occurred around 3 in the afternoon just south of Lancaster Airport, in Manheim County, as reported by Police Chief Duane Fisher in a press conference. The five individuals were taken to hospitals and at the moment, their health status is unknown. There were no injuries reported on the ground, added the police chief.
How did the accident happen?
Brian Pipkin was driving in the area when he saw the small plane ascending before sharply turning to the left. “And then it went into a nosedive,” he told The Associated Press. “There was immediately a fireball.”
Pipkin called the emergency number 911 and then headed to the scene of the accident, where he recorded a video showing a column of black smoke coming out of the plane wreckage and several cars engulfed in flames in the parking lot of Brethren Village.
He added that the aircraft passed very close to a three-story building located within the retirement community, which is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Philadelphia.
An airport fire truck arrived within minutes, and shortly after, more rescuers showed up.
“There was a lot of smoke and a lot of heat,” Pipkin recounted. “They really had trouble putting out the fire.”
A dozen parked cars were damaged and Brethren Village residents were briefly asked to take shelter inside the facilities as a preventive measure, Fisher said.
“I don’t know if I would consider it a miracle, but the fact that we have an airplane accident where everyone survives and no one on the ground is injured is something wonderful,” added the police chief.
The Federal Aviation Administration of the United States (FAA) confirmed that there were five people on board the Beechcraft Bonanza. At the moment, the flight path and destination have not been revealed.
According to the air traffic control audio, the pilot reports that the aircraft “has an open door, we need to return to land”. You can hear an air traffic controller authorizing the plane’s landing, before saying, “Climb!”. Moments later, someone is heard saying that the aircraft was “in the parking area, behind the terminal.”
The FAA will open an investigation into the incident.
The accident occurs approximately one month after seven people died when an air ambulance caught fire after crashing on a busy street in Philadelphia.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.