Four people safely escaped after a small plane slammed into their house in Plainville, Massachusetts, but the three people in the plane were killed, state police said Sunday night.
The plane, a Beechcraft BE36 that had departed from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, crashed into the house about 5:45 p.m. ET, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board said.
Massachusetts State Police confirmed that all three people on the plane were killed. The NTSB said it has launched an investigation.
State police said that the house became engulfed in flames before it was extinguished after almost three hours. But somehow, all four people inside it were able to escape safely, firefighters told NBC station WHDH of Boston.
Mary O'Rourke, who lives next door, told NBC News she was sitting on her porch when "all of a sudden I saw this little plane crash into the back of my neighbors' house."
"It went right up in flames," O'Rourke said. "There was black smoke and ashes everywhere."
O'Rourke said two adults and two children, one a freshman in high school and the other a fourth grader, ran out of the home and appeared unharmed. They managed to rescue the family dog, but their three cats were missing.
"I was right on my porch," she said. "I got really scared. ... I was shaking."
