National Transportation Safety Board investigators were in Upland Friday to help determine what caused a single-engine plane to plummet from the sky and crash through the roof of a home Thursday, killing the pilot on board.
Officials have not determined what caused the plane — a four-seat, single-engine Cirrus SR22 — to go down. The pilot who was killed in the crash has not been identified.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the coroner’s office are among the agencies involved in the investigation.
Witnesses believe the low-flying plane may have been trying to make a U-turn back to Cable Airport in Upland just before it crashed into the home in the 1200 block of West Overland Court.
One neighbor said the “whole house was engulfed” as she and her husband were running out of their home.
“Witnesses reported seeing the airplane flying low and slow, before it turned and descended rapidly into the house,” Samantha Link, an investigator with the NTSB, said during a Friday morning news conference.
She said a team of investigators are documenting the evidence left at the scene before the plane is removed Friday afternoon and taken to a secure location, where it will be examined more closely.
Link said the plane was destroyed in the crash, but she did not elaborate on what was left of the aircraft.
“We currently have no idea what happened,” she said.
The plane’s parachute was deployed at some point during the crash, but it is unclear if the pilot pulled on it or it occurred from the impact, Link said.
The crash prompted a massive response from firefighters, who spent nearly two hours getting the situation under control.
On Thursday, the FAA said the plane had taken off from nearby Cable Airport not long before it went down.
Family members said a father and his infant son were inside the home when the plane came crashing through part of the roof.
Although they were knocked to the ground, the two managed to escape the incident unharmed.
A GoFundMe page was set up to help raise money for the displaced family members as they search for temporary housing.
