Two adults and one child aboard a small plane were injured when it crashed Saturday in San Jose, California.
Authorities said the incident happened around 3:00 p.m. at Capitol Expressway and Excalibur Drive, NBC Bay Area reported:
The plane’s occupants suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to a hospital as a precaution.
San Jose police told KRON no pedestrians were hurt and no other vehicles were involved in the crash, while fire department officials said there was a fuel spill “which was absorbed.”
Fire authorities shared photos of the crash site where the mangled plane was sitting in the roadway with its nose in the pavement:
Flightdrama reported the plane had just taken off from Reid-Hillview County Airport, which is approximately 1.5 miles away from the crash site, when the pilot said the aircraft was experiencing engine failure.
“We are having engine failure. I’m declaring an emergency,” he stated:
“The plane is a 1968 Cessna 177A Cardinal and is registered to Flying Twenty Inc., a nonprofit flight club for San Jose State University students, alumni and faculty, Federal Aviation Administration records show,” ABC 7 reported.
Video footage recorded by a community member shows the moments after the crash, with traffic stopped in the lanes surrounding the plane. It appears emergency crews had not yet arrived at the scene when the video was taken:
“The crash blocked traffic and forced Alum Rock Avenue offramp off highway 680 to close for a few hours. Neighbors say there have been other crashes involving planes flying out of Reid-Hillview, but this is the first time one crashed so close to their homes. The plane was towed out of the intersection on Saturday evening,” the NBC report stated.
Law enforcement noted drugs and alcohol did not appear to have been factors when the plane went down, but authorities were still investigating what happened.
