No fewer than three persons were killed in the early hours of today in Chofu, a suburban area, close to Japanese capital, when a small plane crashed into a row of houses. Five people were aboard the plane, including the pilot, but two were killed.
The others were reportedly pulled from the wreckage, injured but conscious, even as a woman was killed in one of the gutted houses.
The plane which reportedly crashed just minutes after takeoff, from the airport approximately 500 metres away, was said to be flying to Izu Oshima Island, about 60 miles south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean.
Shocking images showed the blackened remains of three houses destroyed by the blaze which the crash caused, even as two vehicles were also destroyed and another two homes damaged.
Minako Akiyama, a resident in the neighbourhood, said she remembered hearing the sound of the crash, describing how she initially heard an enormous noise of something being torn.
“There was kaboom! I ran upstairs, then I saw the house just over there on fire, with a tail of the plane sticking out of it.”
Tweeting this morning, the Tokyo Fire Department said it was fighting the flames, and attempting search and rescue in “intense heat”.
Earlier this month, two persons were killed when a fighter jet collided with a small plane over South Carolina, USA.
The cause of the Chofu crash is currently unknown and police are investigating.
Chofu covers 21sq km and is home to approximately 220,000 people. [myad]
