Two people were killed and at least 18 were injured when a small plane crashed into the roof of a furniture factory in southern California on Thursday.
The crash occurred around 2:15 p.m. local time at Michael Nicholas Designs in Fullerton, about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Fullerton Police Department confirmed the two deaths and said 10 people were hospitalized with injuries, while eight were treated at the scene. More than 100 people were evacuated from the building.
It’s unclear which of the victims were on the plane or inside the warehouse. California Rep. Lou Correa said in a social media post that at least a dozen of the factory workers had been injured.
The crash caused the building to become engulfed in flames, leaving some employees badly burned.
“We were working and then all of the sudden you hear an explosion,” Angel Cortes, who was inside the building, told the Orange County Register. “Fire came out of the ceiling — heat everywhere. We just started running.”
The pilot of the plane, a single-engine Van’s RV-10, had reportedly radioed that they needed to make an emergency landing roughly 90 seconds after taking off from the Fullerton Municipal Airport, the Register reported.
No other details about the accident had been released as of Thursday evening. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash.
