2 plane crashes in southern California in 24 hrs

Two small planes crashed in 24 hours in southern California, killing two pilots and injuring one passenger, the Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday (local time).

Monday’s accident occurred around 11:50 a.m. local time (1850 GMT), the airplane with one person aboard was about to touch down when it crashed.

On Sunday, a 69-year-old man was killed and another person was injured after their small plane missed the same airport’s runway and crash-landed in a private plant nursery nearby, it said.

The two crashes occurred about 100 yards (91.4 meters) away near the Brackett Field Airport in La Verne, a city located 50 km east of Los Angeles downtown.

A witness of Monday’s tragedy, Francisco Juarez, told local ABC 7 news channel that he saw the plane making a whirring noise before it hit the ground. “There was a big explosion,” Juarez said.

Video clips posted by ABC 7 online showed flames and thick black smoke rose from the wreckage of Monday’s crash.

The plane crashed on Sunday is a single-engine Cessna 177RG plane, while Monday’s fatal crash involved a six-seater, single-engined Beech Bonanza aircraft.