5 killed as plane crashes into California house

Five people have died in Southern California after a small plane crashed into a house on Sunday, setting the home on fire.

The twin-engine plane came apart and caught fire mid-flight, witnesses told local media, before crashing in Yorba Linda, a suburb of Los Angeles.

The victims have not yet been named. Fire officials say two people were treated in hospital for burns.

Those killed in the home were two males and two females, Orange County officials said at a news conference.

Local residents described a shrill whistling sound before an explosion set the two-storey home on fire at 13:45 (21:45 GMT) on Sunday.

Orange County Sheriff’s Cory Martino said the pilot died as well as four occupants of the home in Yorba Linda, which is about 35 miles (56km) southeast of Los Angeles.

Martino said two other people had been taken to hospital with moderate injuries.

Seventy-two firefighters attended the scene alongside local police, with the investigation into the crash still ongoing.

A spokesman with the National Transportation Safety Board said the twin-engine Cessna 414A crashed shortly after taking off from a nearby airport.

A video showed plane parts scattered on the ground and on rooftops and residents of the neighborhood trying to fight the blaze caused by the crash with garden hoses as black clouds of smoke rose into the sky.

Eliott Simpson, an aviation accident investigator, said debris was scattered over four blocks and a nearby elementary school will be closed tomorrow as they investigate.

Pokey Sanchez, an assistant chief with the Orange County Fire Department, said firefighters planned to sift through the badly burned two-story house in case there were additional victims of the Sunday afternoon crash.