Light aircraft crashes into houses in north Kent
LONDON (Reuters) - Five people are believed to have been on board a private plane that crashed into residential properties near Farnborough just south east of London around 2.30pm on Sunday, police said.
A Fire Brigade spokesman said one building was "100 percent alight" and 20 percent of the roof of the second was also ablaze.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said five people were believed to have been on board the twin-engined Cessna Citation light aircraft. They have not yet been accounted for.
He added that there had been no immediate reports of any casualties on the ground. The nearby Princess Royal University Hospital said it had not received any casualties two hours after the crash.
A spokesman for nearby Biggin Hill private airfield said the plane had taken off from there but had experienced difficulties, made a Mayday call and was attempting an emergency landing. He gave no further details.
The aircraft was believed to have been headed for France.
Katherine Simnet, a resident of a nearby house, told the BBC: "We looked out of the bedroom window and we saw it (the plane) flying really low, as though it was in trouble.
"It swerved our house. It looked like it was trying to land in the nearby woods, the nearby fields... but it crashed into two of the houses on the block and we saw two big balls of black smoke and could smell the air fuel."
She believed the residents of one of the houses were on holiday, while those in the other escaped serious harm.
Eight fire engines and several ambulances and emergency response vehicles were on the scene.
