Two people were killed when a small plane crashed into a mobile home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, on Monday, authorities said.
According to a Facebook post from Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue (SSFR), the incident happened at approximately 4:23 p.m. on Monday in a mobile home parking lot.
“It has been confirmed that a pilot and passenger have died in a plane crash that occurred this afternoon at West Acres Mobile Park,” SSFR said in a statement. SaidTheir identities are not being released pending notification of next of kin.
According to SSFR, the twin-engine Cessna 421 was believed to have taken off from Longmont, Colorado, and was en route to Ogden, Utah, when it crashed in West Acres Mobile Park, about 1.5 miles from the Steamboat Springs Airport.
According to the press release, on-duty and off-duty personnel responded to the incident and worked to extinguish the fire in two homes and an outbuilding that broke out after the crash.
Authorities said all occupants of the mobile garage were accounted for following the incident. (Related: Shocking footage of seaplane crashing into boat, injuring two).
“Then we heard this boom. Everything was shaking and we heard screams. People were screaming,” said Beyonce Alegria, a neighbor who witnessed the incident. Said CBS News.
Jay Seifert and Mike McGlone witnessed what happened and rushed to try to help those trapped inside the home, according to CBS News.
“People were coming out of their homes with fire extinguishers, buckets of water, things like that, I think they were trying to help,” Seifert told CBS News. “We ran to the two doors of the burning mobile home, yelling to see if anyone was inside, if they had pets, anything, until we couldn’t stand the heat anymore.”
Seifert and McGlone said they noticed something was wrong with the plane before the fatal crash, the media reported.
“I heard it before I could see it,” McGlone told CBS. “The plane was spinning around and around and one of the engines was definitely failing.”
“So the plane wasn’t actually moving very far forward, but it was basically rotating 360 degrees. It was almost stationary, which was pretty weird,” Seifert added.
Authorities said the cause of the crash remains under investigation.
