Palo Alto Plane Crash

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 11:06 pm

Palo Alto Plane Crash- A twin-engine Cessna crashed into transmission lines shortly after take-off from a small airport, exploding on impact, killing all three people onboard and crashing into an East Palo neighborhood, authorities said.

The plane, authorities said, was bound for Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Southern California and took off in foggy conditions and crashed about 7:50 a.m. near Garden and Beech streets northwest of the Palo Alto airport.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said all three who were on the plane were killed, but there had been no injuries on the ground.

Daniel Morales, who told KTVU he had previously flown with the pilot, identiifed him as a high-ranking official at Tesla Motors. Authorities, however, have not released the names of the victims.

The plane hit transmission lines that are draped 377 feet above the ground near the Dumbarton Bridge. It exploded on impact with the wires, splitting into two pieces and igniting fires at two homes. One of the homes housed a daycare center for 20 children. Fortunately, there were no children there at the time of the crash.

Heather Starnes , who lives in the neighborhood, was leaving her home to take her daughter to school when she saw the crash.

“We heard something and it blew up in the air,” she told KTVU. “There was this big explosion. Part of it hit my neighbor’s house who has a daycare and part of it hit my neighbor’s other house. They are burning.”

Starnes said fortunately there were no children at the daycare at the time of the crash.

“Praise God there were no kids in the daycare, it hit where they would have been in the daycare,” she said.

Starnes said the plane slammed into a power line.

“It hit a power line,” she said. “Then it exploded — then half hit the next door neighbor’s house and the other half hit across the street. We were right in the road.”

Starnes said neighbors immediately flocked to the crash scene to help.

“There was one house, we couldn’t save it,” she said. “(Plane parts) It hit cars, there were a lot of explosions. There weren’t any injuries in the houses.”

Emergency vehicles were on the scene and there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Neighbors said that the area was draped in fog at the time of the crash. Gregor said it would have been up to the pilot to decide how safe it would have been to take off.

“That decision would have been up to the pilot,” the FAA spokesman said.

Patricia Armistead, who lived in the neighborhood, heard the explosion and raced outside.