Plane Crashes Into Buena Park Neighborhood : Aviation: The accident is the second in two weeks involving aircraft flying to or from nearby Fullerton Airport.

The pilot of a single-engine airplane en route to Fullerton Airport was critically injured Sunday when his plane crashed in a residential street, smashing into a stop sign and skidding through an intersection before slamming into a metal-cutting factory, authorities said.

The crash is the second in two weeks involving private planes coming to or from the Fullerton Airport.

Pilot Albert Swafford, 47, and his son, Kyle, 17, both of Bakersfield, were taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where the elder Swafford was listed in critical condition, Buena Park Fire Capt. Christopher L. Abraham said. Kyle Swafford was listed in stable condition with unspecified injuries, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Authorities said the pilot had been circling the airport and had radioed air traffic controllers that he was unfamiliar with the airport. Tower officials declined comment on the radio communications, referring all inquiries to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Neighbors were clearly shaken by the crash, which happened in a residential and commercial area at about 11 a.m., miraculously missing anybody on the ground in the well-trafficked area.

“It sounded like he had stalled, then all of a sudden his power kicked on, and I think this gave him the power to continue onto the street,” said Greg Seneshal, 33, who lives on Handel Drive near Dale Street, in a Buena Park neighborhood about a quarter-mile southwest of the airport.

When he heard the plane circling, Seneshal said he rushed outside. He saw the plane do a “radical U-turn,” lose power, regain it, then descend quickly over the heavily populated neighborhood.

Seneshal said the aircraft “just missed” his roof but clipped one of his trees before coming down in a roar onto Handel Drive near the intersection of Schubert Circle. It then skidded down Handel, across four lanes of Dale Street, knocking down a small concrete block wall at Atlas Metal Cutting Inc.

Seneshal’s neighbor, June Garcia, who has lived in the neighborhood 17 years, said the growing frequency of air crashes has made her afraid.

“They’re getting closer and closer” all the time, Garcia said.

Two weeks ago, another single-engine plane crash-landed on the Santa Ana Freeway after taking off from Fullerton Airport, killing two people in the plane.

Firefighters noted that many residents were probably inside watching Sunday football games and that this may have helped avoid injuries to people on the ground.

Had there been children playing in the street as usual Sunday morning, Garcia said there “would have been many, many deaths.”

But other neighbors praised the pilot for doing a “very good job” of missing their homes.

The pilot “definitely saved our lives,” said Marian Willeford, who was just returning home from church when the crash occurred.

Willeford and others watched the aircraft as the pilot lost control.

“(The pilot) apparently was too high to land and had to circle the field, and ended up landing on our streets,” Willeford said.

Police immediately cordoned off the crash area. Paramedics pulled the pilot, who was unconscious, from the wreckage as firefighters raced to extinguish a small fire caused by spilled fuel.

According to paramedics, the pilot’s teen-age son told them he was asleep before his father brought the aircraft down.

The wreck demolished the single-engine Cessna. Damage to the aircraft was estimated at $150,000.

National Transportation Safety Board officials took charge of the accident investigation Sunday, and removed the badly damaged aircraft to a regional storage yard late Sunday for further inspection.

Times staff writer David A. Avila contributed to this story.