Small plane crashes into Upland houses

Connie Interlicchia was in her Upland home Monday morning, working on her laptop computer in the kitchen, when the house shuddered and chunks of metal started raining into her backyard.

She grabbed her purse and her Chihuahua and dashed outside, where she found a mangled twin-engine plane parked on her garage roof.

“I looked up and I saw these guys on the roof. I asked one guy, ‘What happened?’ ” Interlicchia said. “But they were too hurt; they couldn’t talk.”

The Piper Seneca was approaching Cable Airport in Upland when it lost power and crashed into three Blossom Circle homes, injuring the three men aboard but no one in the homes, authorities said.

The plane was just blocks from the airport when it clipped the red-tile roof of a house, hit the roof of another home and a tree, whipped around and came to rest on the garage of Interlicchia’s house about 10:40 a.m., said Michael Antonucci, chief of the Upland Fire Department.

The plane’s tail and its left side were mangled. Large dents covered the aircraft’s right side, and its right passenger door was smashed in.

There was no fire, only a small fuel leak, and the flying instructor and two student pilots were taken to hospitals with minor and moderate injuries, Antonucci said.

“We were real fortunate that the plane and the homes didn’t catch on fire,” Antonucci said. “This could’ve involved five or six houses if there had been flames.”

The plane reportedly had taken off from Van Nuys Airport and was headed to Cable when it lost power and crashed, authorities said.

The pilot, Eliahou Tousson, 52, of Sherman Oaks, suffered back and chest injuries.

A 34-year-old student sustained a back injury, and an 18-year-old student hurt his arm and suffered an injury to an ear, Antonucci said. The 18-year-old was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center; the others were treated at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. The identities of the students were not released.

Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

Across the street from the crash site, Steve Dixon, 32, of Hesperia and his wife were visiting her grandparents when they heard a boom. He said he quickly checked on neighbors.

The younger student pilot jumped down from the garage roof and was bleeding from an ear, Dixon said. The two others were still in the plane and said they needed medical aid.

Although most of the plane landed on Interlicchia’s garage, one of its engines lay on the house next door. Chunks of the metal plane were scattered across Interlicchia’s frontyard, and a felt-covered chair lay near the side of the house.

The neighborhood lies in the path of airplanes landing at Cable.

Interlicchia was shocked by the accident. “I heard this big noise and saw debris flying everywhere past my screen door that faces the backyard,” she said. “I thought we were having an earthquake.”

Interlicchia, who owns the Chihuahua and two cats, said she couldn’t find her felines and had asked firefighters to go into the home to look for them. Inside the garage, which was off-limits to Interlicchia, were a Volkswagen sedan and a Jeep.

Because some of the plane’s fuel spilled on the roof, firefighters said it would be a while before they could go inside and search for the cats.

A resident of one of the other homes that was hit said he had always been wary of the small planes overhead. “I was working on the computer in the back of the house, and I heard this loud boom,” said Jeff Sangari, 46. “I had no idea what it was, but thinking about all the small airplanes, that was the first thing on my mind.”

About noon, a large chunk of roof fell from the house where the plane’s engine was resting. Melysa Golder, 32, who owns the home with her husband, was at work in Glendora when her brother-in-law called with the news.

The damage could have been a lot worse, she said, looking around as she waited for city inspectors to assess the damage.

“It only really hit the master bedroom area. From here, the other areas look livable,” Golder said.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

sara.lin@latimes.com

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Times staff writer Jonathan Abrams contributed to this report.