A small plane has plunged into a neighbourhood near a Connecticut airport in the US and three people are missing, including two children inside a home that caught fire.
The crash of the multi-engine, propeller-driven plane caused the partial collapse of two small homes a few blocks from Tweed New Haven Airport.
Firefighters found both homes engulfed in flames when they arrived.
The missing include the one person on the plane and two children in a house, aged one and 13, Joseph Maturo, the mayor of East Haven, Connecticut, said.
“We haven’t recovered anybody at this point and we presume there is going to be a very bad outcome,” East Haven fire chief Douglas Jackson said.
The plane, a Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B, flew out of Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and crashed at 11.25am local time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Tweed’s airport manager, Lori Hoffman-Soares, said the pilot had been in communication with air traffic control but did not issue any distress calls.
“All we know is that it missed the approach and continued on. There were no distress calls as far as we know,” she said.
A neighbour, David Esposito, said he heard a loud noise and then a thump. “No engine noise, nothing,” he said.
“A woman was screaming her kids were in there,” he said.
Mr Esposito said he ran into the upstairs of the house, where the woman believed her children were, but they could not find them. They returned downstairs to search but he dragged the woman out when the flames became too strong.
Mr Maturo offered sympathy to the children’s mother and their family.
“It’s total devastation in the back of the home,” he said.