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Five die in Kent plane crash
30/03/2008 22:52 - (SA)
London - All five people going to France in a private
jet were killed on Sunday when the plane crashed
into a housing estate near Farnborough, south-east of London,
Kent fire brigade said. There were no injuries on the ground.
Police said earlier the twin-engine private jet was carrying
two pilots and three passengers. They said it was a miracle that
no one on the ground had been killed.
Local residents said the pilot had tried desperately to miss
the houses as the plane lost height with its nose up and engines
screaming.
"We looked out of the bedroom window and we saw it (the
plane) flying really low, as though it was in trouble,"
Katherine Simnet, a resident of a nearby house, told the BBC.
"It swerved our house. It looked like it was trying to land
in the nearby woods, the nearby fields... but it crashed ... and
we saw two big balls of black smoke and could smell the air
fuel."
She said she thought the residents of the house were on
holiday.
Ambulance services said two people had been taken to the
nearby Princess Royal University Hospital suffering from shock.
A spokesperson said they had not been involved in the crash.
"There are no reports of any fatalities on the ground, just
some minor injuries, nothing serious," a Metropolitan Police
spokesperson said.
One building on the quiet housing estate, believed to have
been a garage, was burned down and the roof and top storey of a
house next door had been badly damaged.
Nearby Biggin Hill airfield said the Cessna Citation, a
short-haul jet, had just taken off when the pilot made an
emergency call reporting difficulties and asking for permission
to land again.
It "unfortunately crashed before reaching the airport", the
airfield said in a statement. An airfield official who did not
wish to be identified said the jet had been heading to France.
- Reuters
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