Plane crashes on house, kills six

A small plane crashed into a house bordering a golf course in suburban Austin, Texas, and burst into flames, killing the six people aboard. Three people inside the luxury two-story home escaped unharmed.

Two children – including one who was just 18 months old – their parents, a pilot and another person were killed after the twin-engine plane refuelled and took off yesterday from Lakeway Airpark just before noon, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman John Clabes said.

The family was apparently from Edmond, Oklahoma, and the pilot from Oklahoma City, Clabes said. He did not know where the sixth person was from. He declined to release their names.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said she did not know where the plane originated, but witnesses at the airport said it was headed to Oklahoma City.

Relatives of the family aboard the craft watched the takeoff and saw the crash, Clabes said.

“We just looked up and saw the aircraft and it was going slow, wings level,” said Bert Brown, a retired American Airlines pilot who was golfing when the plane crashed. “I saw him try to either make a left hand turn or stalling out.

“With that, he lost lift and crashed right into the ground.”

Laurence and Jacqueline Elliott, along with an appliance repairman, were in the house but managed to escape just as the crash occurred, said a friend, Ellen Roberts. She said Jacqueline Elliott described the scene as “an inferno.”

The house, which is adjacent to a golf course, is less than three miles away from the private airport created by the community’s residents.

The plane hit a retaining wall between the home and the golf course, then ploughed into the back patio area. The plane’s cockpit was lodged in the charred, blackened rear of the house and small pieces of it littered the yard. Smoke poured from a hole in the tiled roof for a few hours.