Plane crashes into house in South Africa

A light airplane crashed into a house in North Durban today, seriously injuring all six people aboard, including a family of Austrian tourists, police said.

The family of four was on holiday on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast and hired the plane for an aerial tour of the region, said police spokeswoman Captain Gugu Sabela.

Shortly before landing at nearby Virginia airport, the plane nose-dived into the roof of a house, she said. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

The South African pilot and one of the Austrian passengers were trapped inside the plane and had to be extracted before they could be rushed with the other passengers to Umhlanga Rocks hospital.

The house was empty at the time, Sabela said.

Two South Africans, including the pilot, were among the injured. Their identities were not released, and it was not immediately clear who owned the aircraft.

Civil aviation officials were investigating.