One person believed to be a pilot was killed when a small plane struck a building and crashed in a strawberry field in Oxnard Friday morning, authorities said.
The crash was reported around 8 a.m. near the northbound lanes of the 101 Freeway near the Del Norte Boulevard exit, according to Ventura County Fire Department Capt. Brian McGrath.
It resulted in a fire that has since been extinguished.
“The amount of damage and the extreme heat that was under the fire from that plane, there’d be nothing survivable in that plane,” McGrath told KTLA, adding that it’s unclear how many people were onboard.
The Mooney M20T aircraft had departed from Camarillo and was headed to Phoenix, Arizona when it clipped the building and crashed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. (FAA initially said the plane had departed from Phoenix.)
Firefighters said they found part of the plane on the rooftop of a nearby church across the freeway.
On the field, the charred remains of the badly burned plane were visible.
A K-9 unit was brought in to examine the wreck as firefighters searched for any other potential victims.
It’s unclear what caused the plane to go down and no further details were available.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
Check back for updates on this developing story.