Small Plane Crashes in Yard; 3 Die : Accident: No one on the ground is injured. The pilot reported difficulty before going down in a residential area of Granada Hills.

A private plane bound for Van Nuys Airport crashed in a Granada Hills residential area Monday afternoon, killing all three people on board, but injuring no one on the ground.

The Beechcraft Baron, a twin-engine, propeller-driven plane, crashed into a backyard storage shed at 17540 Kingsbury St. about 5 p.m., authorities said.

“The pilot radioed the tower and said he was having trouble controlling the plane, and the next thing we knew his plane was down,” said airport spokeswoman Diane Sayre.

The plane had been cleared to land and fire crews were waiting along the runway, Sayre said.

The plane was on final approach when it crashed four miles north of the airport, the busiest non-commercial aviation facility in the United States, authorities said.

Sayre said it was unclear where the flight had originated.

Coroner’s officials said it would be several days before the victims could be identified because of the condition of their bodies. Los Angeles City Fire Department spokesman Stephen Ruda described the scene as one of “massive carnage.”

Sherida Hoffmann said she had just sat down to a snack in her den when the plane crashed in her back yard.

“It was almost like a sonic boom,” she said. “It hit. Then there was a muffled sound, like a thud, and then it stopped dead.

“I just saw the hole and . . . smelled gasoline. I didn’t hear anyone calling for help.”

Bob Leggett, 39, a construction foreman who moved into the house behind Hoffmann’s two weeks ago, said he heard the plane’s engine die shortly before it crashed less than 100 feet away.

“I heard the motor quit, so I started to get up, and it went ‘boom,’ ” he said. “Then I ran out, and somebody screamed, ‘Call 911!’. . . . I’m really lucky--it could have landed right here.”

The blue-and-white striped tail of the plane jutted from a gaping hole in the back of the shed as about 40 Los Angeles city firefighters worked to recover the bodies from the wreckage. There was no fire.

Federal Aviation Administration officials said the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate the crash.

The plane narrowly missed a number of neighboring homes, an orange grove and a corral containing Hoffmann’s 4-month-old Arabian colt.

Karl Breckner, 30, whose father owns the Hoffmann property, said the pilot may have deliberately crashed into the shed to avoid injuring residents.

“The plane must have been looking for a clear area and saw the corrugated roof, decided it was a shed, and tried to land,” he said.

Hoffmann said the aircraft flying over Kingsbury Street have worried her.

“I grew up in the military, and I’m not afraid of planes,” she said. “But these are small planes, and I just knew one of them would crash one day.”