EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. — A twin engine Cessna 310 crashed shortly after takeoff Wednesday morning in East Palo Alto, hitting a home and a day care center.
Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman said a pilot and two passengers are dead. An employee of the day care center said no children were hurt.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the plane, which had taken off from Palo Alto Airport headed for Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Southern California, “crashed under unknown circumstances.”
East Palo Alto resident Ernestina Ibarra
heard an explosion from her bathroom, as she was getting ready for
work, and saw some of what happened through her window. “I was so
scared,” she said. “It was terrible.”
Ibarra lives on Beech Street,
and said pieces of the plane fell into her back yard. Two houses away,
she said, a portion of the plane fell into the back of a home day care
center.
Sandra Rivers, who works at the center, said only one
child was there at the time, and everyone was able to escape safely.
“Thank God we got out,” Rivers said.
Ibarra also said a portion of the plane fell into a
house across the street from her home, as well as several cars on the
street.
FAA records show the plane was registered to Unique Air Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif.
Palo Alto police agent Dan Ryan said reports indicate the crash occurred about 7:55 a.m. PST in a neighborhood known as the Gardens, which is across from the Palo Alto Airport’s runway.
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