Pilot Dies When Plane Plunges Into House

A light plane crashed into a house in Rancho Cucamonga Friday afternoon, killing the pilot and narrowly missing a 17-year-old boy who was watching television, officials said.

The pilot, a man whose identity was withheld pending notification of relatives, was the only one aboard the twin-engine Beechcraft Travel Air, officials said.

Authorities said the plane had taken off a short time earlier from Cable Airport in Upland, about four miles southwest of the crash site.

The teenager, Timothy Seals, told San Bernardino County fire officials that he was alone in the home on Cathedral Court when he felt the house shake.

His father, Joel Seals, who was at work, said he got a call from his son moments later.

“He said, ‘Dad, a plane just hit the house!’ ” the father said. “I said, ‘Son, don’t be lying like that.’ He yelled, ‘I’m not! ‘I’m not!’ ”

A few doors away from the crash, 18-year-old neighbor Nicola Fakhoury was shaving, he said, when he looked out the window and saw the plane skimming over the neighborhood.

“I ran outside and saw it do a 180-degree turn,” Fakhoury said. “Then it tilted and smashed into the house. I ran over there, and there was broken glass everywhere and fuel running down the gutters.”

The impact sliced away the entire front of the house, but there was no fire.

The cause of the 4:30 p.m. crash was not immediately determined, authorities, said, and witnesses gave conflicting reports on whether there were any sounds from the plane before it hit the house.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration have been called in to investigate.

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Times staff writer Eric Malnic contributed to this report.