A small plane crashed Wednesday in a residential neighborhood shrouded in heavy fog, killing all three aboard, igniting fires and scattering debris onto a house where a children’s day care center operated, authorities said. There were no reports of injury on the ground, and fires caused by the crash were soon extinguished.
The Cessna 310 crashed around 7:55 a.m. shortly after takeoff from the Palo Alto Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The crash site is one mile northwest of the airport.
Identities of the victims aboard the aircraft were not immediately known.
Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman said the plane either struck a 100-foot electrical tower or clipped its power transmission lines and broke apart, sending debris raining down on the working-class Silicon Valley neighborhood.
A wing fell onto one house, where the children’s day care operated, and the rest of the plane struck the front retaining wall of another house down the street before landing onto two vehicles on the street, Schapelhouman said. Debris also struck two neighboring houses, he said.
The occupants of the homes have been accounted for, although authorities can’t be sure of the fatality count until crews begin clearing the wreckage, Schapelhouman said.
