Passenger Killed When Plane Hits House : Accident: Crash near Santa Monica Airport sets vacant house on fire. Student pilot had reported engine trouble and is in critical condition.

A single-engine plane crashed into an unoccupied house in West Los Angeles on Friday night, killing the passenger and setting the house on fire.

The student pilot, 22, survived the crash with a broken arm and second-degree burns on his arms and hands. He was in critical condition at ULCA Medical Center, authorities said.

The pilot of the four-seat Piper 28 had just taken off from the Santa Monica Airport and was at about 1,000 feet when he reported engine trouble to the control tower, Assistant Chief Bob Neamy of the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

He headed back to the airport, but the engine hood came loose, blocking the pilot’s view and causing him to lose control and crash into the house, Neamy said.

Firefighters put out the fire at the house, about a mile from the airport, in about 10 minutes. But because the plane hit a power line, about 800 customers in a four-block area around the house were without power for several hours, according the Department of Water and Power officials.

The names of the pilot and his passenger, a man in his 30s, were not disclosed by authorities.

“I was in my house, and I heard the boom,” said Helen Andranian, who lives next door to the crash site. “I think it’s time to sell the house and move.”

The pilot had been practicing “touch-and-goes” at the time of the crash, said Fred O’Donnell, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

“This involves the pilot touching down briefly and then reapplying power,” O’Donnell said. “When the plane has enough air speed, the pilot climbs up again and makes a 360-degree turn. Then he does it all over again.

“Since the most critical phase of any airplane flight is landing and takeoffs . . . student pilots need to master this and experienced pilots need to maintain their proficiency.”

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.

The Santa Monica facility is one of the busiest single-runway airports in the nation, the site of more than 200,000 takeoffs and landings a year. Many neighbors have expressed frustration over fumes, noise and occasional crashes.

It has become a greater nuisance in the last two years, critics say, because of a surge in jet traffic. The neighbors are angry that the airport has allowed the sale of jet fuel, and some have hinted that they may file a lawsuit seeking to ban jets.

After Friday night’s crash, neighbors said they were lucky because the plane hit a house that had been vacated and was for rent.

Katherine Hayes, who lives across the street from the accident scene, said she is plagued by noise and is worried that a plane will crash into her house.

“I’m nervous . . . the planes are really low when they come past here,” she said. “This just brought it closer to home. It could have been our house.”

But airport officials have said the accident rate of one crash per 200,000 takeoffs and landings is lower than the national average. No one on the ground ever has been killed as a result of a crash involving a plane from Santa Monica Airport.

Still, neighbors say, there have been close calls. In November, a pilot and his passenger were killed when their small plane slammed into a Santa Monica apartment building after takeoff.

In 1992, a pilot was killed when his plane hit a utility pole while trying to return to the airport. The plane exploded in a residential area of Venice.

In 1989, a home-built plane crashed into two houses in West Los Angeles after the pilot reported engine problems. No one was seriously injured.