For the second time in less than 24 hours, firefighters have responded to a fatal plane crash in the vicinity of the airport in La Verne, authorities said Monday.
The latest incident was reported at Brackett Field Airport, located at 1615 McKinley Avenue, around 11:50 a.m., according to a La Verne Police Department news release.
The Beech Bonanza aircraft was approaching the runway when it crashed, with initial reports indicating it may have hit a tree, a Federal Aviation Administration official said in an emailed statement.
The plane burst into flames after impact, sending a thick plume of black smoke high into the air. Firefighters responded to the scene and were able to quickly extinguish the blaze, a La Verne Fire Department dispatcher told KTLA shortly after noon.
One person — the plane’s sole occupant — was killed in the fiery crash, police said.
Sky5 video over the charred wreckage showed a sheet was placed over what appeared to be the cockpit of the small plane.
A pilot who was nearby described what he saw.
“I was the first one to land and I believe this pilot was the second one coming in,” Steve, who was also flying into the airport on Monday, told KTLA. “Right when I exited the runway I looked to the right and saw big, black smoke and flames. So apparently it looks like he undershot the runway and landed short of the runway.”
Not far from the site, the mangled remains of an aircraft that crashed the evening before in a plant nursery remained at the scene early Monday afternoon, the aerial footage showed.
A man was killed and a woman injured when the single-engine Cessna 177RG plane went down along the 1600 block of Puddingstone Drive around 5:45 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.
Less than a minute before the crash, the pilot radioed the airport’s control tower to report engine trouble, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Gig Arnold was riding his bike on a trail Monday to see the crash site from Sunday night, when he looked up and saw the second crash as it unraveled.
“He missed the trees over here and just came in with no power. He just came in and touched and it just blew up. He had no chance,” Arnold said.
Both crashes are being investigated by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Authorities have also not yet identified the victim from either crash.
No additional information was immediately provided.
KTLA’s Jennifer Thang and Nisha Gutierrez-Jaime contributed to this story.
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