2 dead, 18 injured after small plane crash in Southern California

Two people are dead and 18 are injured after a small plane crashed into the rooftop of a commercial building in Southern California on Thursday, according to authorities. 

Ten of the people injured were transported to a nearby hospital and the other eight were treated and released on the scene, Kristy Wells, a Fullerton Police Department spokesperson, said in a statement to The Hill. There are two confirmed fatalities; it is unclear if they were on the ground or in the plane. 

The plane took off from the Fullerton Municipal Airport and crashed less than two minutes later, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.com. 

Wells said local police and firefighters responded to the crash at the 2300 block of Raymer Avenue at 2:09 p.m. local time. They “immediately began evacuation of the surrounding business as there was an active fire,” she said in the statement. 

The fire was later extinguished. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement that a single-engine Van’s RV-10 crashed in Fullerton. The federal agency said it will, alongside the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), investigate the incident. The NTSB will be in charge of the probe, according to the FAA. 

The building in which the plane crashed was occupied by Michael Nicholas Designs, a home goods store, The Associated Press reported.