Plane crashes in Jackson, Miss., neighborhood

(AP) Plane crashes in Jackson, Miss., neighborhood
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss.
A small plane with three people aboard crashed into at least one home near an airport in Jackson Tuesday evening and federal authorities did not have immediate information on casualties.

A Jackson deputy fire chief told WJTV-TV that one person escaped the burning home with minor injuries but it was not immediately clear if anyone else was inside.

The Piper PA-32 single-engine plane is registered to a company in Flowood, Miss., said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. She did not immediately have information about the condition of the people aboard the plane.

Witnesses say large flames and black smoke rose about 50 feet from a burning house that was hit in the neighborhood of modest, single-family homes surrounded by big magnolia and oak trees about a half-mile from the zoo.

The FAA says the plane had just departed Hawkins Field Airport headed for Raymond, Miss., when it crashed.

Vivian Payne, who lives about six blocks from the crash site, said that about 5 p.m., she heard a loud bang that sounded different from an electrical transformer blowing.

“It shook the walls of my house,” Payne said as she stood among ambulances, police cars and fire trucks, their lights flashing in the chilly night air.

The weather in Jackson is partly cloudy in the 40s.