Jet Crash Near Long Beach Airport Kills 2

A vintage French military training jet crashed into a vacant lot and exploded in flames shortly after takeoff from Long Beach Municipal Airport on Wednesday afternoon, killing both people on board, federal officials said.

The victims were not immediately identified. The Federal Aviation Administration said the twin-engine jet belonged to Paradise Aerial, an aviation company based at the airport. Company officials could not be reached for comment.

Witnesses said the plane’s engines sounded as if they failed shortly after the jet lifted off from Runway 30 at 2:57 p.m., fire officials said. The witnesses said that when the engines quit, the pilot apparently started to lower the landing gear, which had been retracted seconds after takeoff.

The pilot radioed he was having trouble with his landing gear, “but there was no sense of urgency” in his message, said FAA spokesman Fred O’Donnell.

Witnesses said the plane stopped climbing and began to bank, slamming onto Cover Street and skidding across the road and some railroad tracks before crashing into a dirt embankment on the lot.

Two women driving along Cover Street saw a ball of fire rising from the wreckage. They said fuel from the aircraft spilled across the road and burst into flames.

If a co-worker “hadn’t stopped us for a moment as we left, we would have been a couple of seconds earlier, and oh my God, that could have been us,” Teresa Gooselin said.

“There were only two people on board, and both of them were killed,” said Battalion Chief Richard Cooper of the Long Beach Fire Department. “Basically, the only damage is to the aircraft itself, and it is totally destroyed.”

Officials said the plane was an Aerospatiale Fouga Magistere, a military trainer craft manufactured in France between 1953 and 1969. When in civilian use, such planes are characterized by the FAA as experimental aircraft.