A small plane crashed into a commercial building near Fullerton Municipal Airport in California on Thursday, leaving two people dead and 18 injured, authorities reported. The accident occurred in the early afternoon, approximately 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Officials stated that 10 of the injured were taken to hospitals, while the remaining eight were treated at the scene. It is unclear whether the two fatalities were passengers on the plane or individuals inside the building at the time of the crash, according to a police officer interviewed by KTLA.
Footage from the scene showed a large hole in the building’s roof with thick smoke rising from the area. Witness Jerome Cruz, who was inside the building during the crash, described the scene: “All we hear is like a loud noise, boom, and that’s it. Then we started running out [of the building].”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) identified the aircraft as a single-engine Van’s RV-10, a four-seat plane. The FAA has launched an investigation into the incident.
This is the second plane crash near Fullerton Municipal Airport in recent months. In November, another crash in the area injured two people.