Pilot Dies as Plane Crashes in Yard; 2 in House Unhurt

A twin-engine cargo plane crashed into a residential neighborhood shortly after takeoff from Ontario International Airport on Friday, bursting into flames a few feet from a bedroom where a 9-year-old girl was getting ready for school.

The girl and her mother fled the house unhurt, but the pilot, identified as 24-year-old Steve Quinto of Alta Loma, was killed. The plane, a Piper Chieftain operated by Ameriflight Inc. of Burbank, was en route to Santa Barbara for United Parcel Service.

Thomas H. Wilcox, air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said the pilot reported to the airport control tower shortly after taking off at 6:50 a.m. that he had lost an engine. The tower gave the pilot clearance to turn around and land on the runway he had just left.

Jeana Shadday, 15, a sophomore at Chaffey High School, said she was walking down Rosewood Court, northwest of the airport, on her way to school when she “heard a low airplane,” and looked up to see the aircraft flying with its wings “straight up and down,” perpendicular to the ground and heading toward her house.

“All the way from the corner back to my house, I was screaming and yelling and crying for my mom and everybody to get out of the house,” Jeana said. Before she reached her house, the plane plunged into the front yard next door, bursting into flames.

The plane had clipped the top of a tree and landed in the 800 block of East Rosewood, just in front of a two-bedroom house occupied by Sandra Ramirez, 28, and her daughter, Karina.

Karina, a third-grade student, said, “Me and my mom were inside the house. I was combing my hair and then I heard a big ‘bam’ and so I closed my ears and ran.”

Karina said she fell and then looked up to her bedroom window and saw a flash of red. “And I started screaming and crying,” she said. “And my mom and me ran out of the house and so did my dog.”

Karina’s father, Jose, was already at work when the crash occurred. Notified by his sister, he raced home to find his family safe, but the front of his house charred, along with his car parked at the curb.

“I feel very lucky that my wife and daughter are OK,” he said. “The house and car can be replaced. Everything can be replaced but my wife and daughter.”

The plane was consumed by fire from its rear cargo door to its nose.

Most of the wreckage was confined to the front yard, but propeller blades were found about a quarter-mile north of the runway, two miles from the crash site.

Some residents along Rosewood said they had already been jolted awake by an earthquake. Allen Brittain, 38, who lives in a house behind the Ramirez residence, said he was still awake from the earthquake when he heard a big explosion, ran out of his house and saw a ball of fire. “It was a weird morning altogether,” he said.