2 Killed as Airplane Crashes in Pacoima : Aviation: Pilot, passenger die when their craft explodes after it hits transformer on takeoff and plunges into vacant building, police say.

Two people were killed Friday when a private airplane they were flying in exploded after hitting an electrical transformer on takeoff from Whiteman Airpark in Pacoima and plunged into the roof of an abandoned bakery, bursting into flames.

The plane, a single-engine Rockwell Commander based at Van Nuys Airport, had just lifted off a runway shortly before 6 p.m. when it hit a lamppost about 300 feet away, then struck a transformer on a nearby power pole and exploded before plunging into an abandoned bakery on Osborne Street, Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Tim McBride said.

“I just heard a crash and then I saw a ball of fire,” said Jerry Salinas, 51, of Canyon Country, who was sitting outside his brake repair shop next door to the bakery when the plane smashed into the roof. “It exploded on its way down to the building.”

“It sounded like a bomb went off,” said Danny Trujillo, 40, of Pacoima, who was sitting with Salinas.

“Then we heard another explosion when it hit the building.”

Both the pilot and a passenger were killed in the crash. The identities of the victims, both believed to have been males, remained unknown Friday.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration’s regional office in Los Angeles disputed witness accounts that just before the crash, the pilot was engaging in a routine training maneuver known as “touch and go,” in which a pilot lands and, without stopping, immediately takes off again.

Rather, the spokeswoman said, the pilot was trying to take off after an aborted landing.

“There are hundreds of reasons for doing that,” she said, such as when a plane comes in too quickly or slowly to land properly, but she said she did not know the reason for aborting the landing in this case.

“They weren’t there for practice,” the spokeswoman said. “They tell the tower when that happens.”

Dick Stonehouse, director of operations for Los Angeles County airports, also said the plane was not performing touch-and-go landings.

Alan Smith, 46, of Northridge, a pilot for 23 years, said he was standing near his own parked plane when he witnessed the attempted landing and crash.

The pilot “was coming in too fast, too hot,” he said. “I saw him clip the pole and then it sounded like a gas explosion.”

Friday’s hot weather also may have been a factor, police said. Extremely hot air is less dense, reducing the amount of lift an airplane’s wings generate.

After hitting the lamppost and the power pole, the plane plunged into the roof of single-story stone building that used to house the San Fernando Valley Baking Co. Witnesses said the building, located in the 12600 block of Osborne Street, just east of San Fernando Road, has been vacant for more than three years.

“The tail of the plane was still sticking out of the building and then it just blew up,” said Duke Seino, 26, of Costa Mesa, who was driving on Osborne Street at the time of crash. “There was fire surrounding that little building.”

Trujillo said the explosion and fire, which charred the back of the building, produced so much heat that there was no chance for either of the victims to be rescued.

What remained of the plane’s cabin was stuck inside the building, while a fully intact wing and other debris lay in what was once the shop’s parking lot, emergency workers said.

There were no injuries on the ground, but the transformer explosion knocked out power to 600 customers and jammed traffic on Osborne Street, authorities said.

“It shocked the hell out of you. . . . My wife heard it on the news and she thought it was me,” Smith said. “Every time I take off I think of the possibilities.”