Five killed as planes crash over city

Shards of aeroplane metal and house siding lay scattered across an eight-block area today after two small planes crashed, killing all five people aboard and injuring six on the ground as debris rained down on homes and streets.

One plane spiralled into a backyard after the collision over Denver, Colorado, yesterday evening, snapping a tree limb and coming to a rest just steps from the backdoor of a two-story home.

The other, a single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawk, just missed a 12-storey senior citizens’ apartment building before crashing into a house.

Police evacuated four residents from the home before it exploded, apparently from fuel from the plane mixing with natural gas. This morning, only the plane’s tail could be seen poking through what remained of the roof. The house below was flattened.

“It disintegrated,” police spokeswoman Virginia Lopez said.

A two-year-old boy and five other people on the ground were hurt by flying debris, but none of their injuries was considered serious, authorities said.

The identities of the victims were not immediately released.

Maureen Ulevich was walking her dog about 5pm when she heard a loud bang and looked up to see a plane falling.

“It looked to me like the left wing had fire and smoke. It was sort of spiralling down toward the ground, not nose down but sort of flat,” she said. “It looked as if there was fire in the engine.”

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were on the scene of the crash last night, and police closed off neighbourhood streets to search for debris from the planes.

Aviation officials said the Cessna, with two people on board, was bound for Cheyenne, Wyoming, from Centennial Airport in suburban south-east Denver. The other plane, a twin-engine Piper Cheyenne II with three people, took off from Jefferson County Airport north-west of Denver and was bound for Centennial Airport.